What happened
On September 22, 2015, a Cessna 172S, registration JA31HA, was conducting solo flight training at Honda Airport in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. During the second of three planned landings, the trainee pilot initiated a flare at an altitude higher than normal. This resulted in a dropped landing where the aircraft sank rapidly, touched down, and bounced.
In an attempt to recover, the pilot applied full throttle to execute a go-around. However, the force of the bounce caused the aircraft to strike the runway again, this time on the nose landing gear. The impact caused the empennable to strike the runway surface. While the aircraft sustained substantial damage to the nose, vertical stabilizer, and horizontal stabilizer, the pilot escaped without injury and no fire occurred.
The investigation
The Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) examined the flight history, the trainee's skill records, and the company's training oversight. Investigators reviewed the aircraft's maintenance and the flight instructor's communications from the tower. The investigation also looked into the company's internal protocols for evaluating student progress and authorizing solo flights.
Findings
- The primary cause of the airframe damage was a dropped landing and subsequent bounce that led to a heavy nose-gear impact and the empennage striking the runway.
- The trainee failed to initiate a go-around despite recognizing that the flare altitude was higher than usual, likely due to insufficient maneuvering skills for stable landings.
- The operator, Honda Airways Co., Ltd., permitted the solo flight despite the trainee not meeting the company's established safety criteria for solo operations.
- The company lacked a standardized, objective system for managing and recording trainee progress across different instructors.
- Supervision methods were inadequate, as the instructor's ability to monitor the approach angle from the tower was limited, and the radio instructions used were not sufficiently specific.