Accident
On August 2, 1979, at approximately 1607 eastern daylight time, a Cessna Citation operated by Thurman L. Munson, a 32-year-old American Major League Baseball catcher, crashed short of runway 19 at Akron-Canton Airport near Canton, Ohio. The pilot had been practicing touch-and-go landings during a local flight with two passengers aboard. The aircraft first touched down in a relatively level, clear area about 870 feet short of the runway. It then slid through a small clump of trees, struck a large stump, and came to rest on a road adjacent to the airport boundary fence. Fire erupted immediately after the aircraft came to rest. The two passengers escaped from the wreckage, but the pilot was killed.
Probable Cause
The official investigation determined the probable cause of the accident was the pilot's failure to recognize the need for, and to take action to maintain, sufficient airspeed to prevent a stall into the ground during an attempted landing. Additionally, the pilot failed to recognize the need for timely and sufficient power application to prevent the stall during an approach conducted inadvertently without flaps extended. Contributing factors included the pilot's failure to use the appropriate checklist and his nonstandard pattern procedures, which resulted in an abnormal approach profile.