What happened
On 04 December 2006, a Piper PA 28-140, registration ZS-IEJ, was involved in an incident during a training flight at Margate Aerodrome. The student pilot was performing circuit and landing exercises when the aircraft was on final approach at an indicated airspeed of 90 mph. During this phase of flight, the aircraft encountered turbulent wind conditions, which caused the right wing to drop. In an attempt to correct the wing's low attitude, the pilot lost directional control of the aircraft. Upon touchdown, the aircraft bounced, resulting in the propeller striking the runway surface.
There were no injuries to the pilot, though the aircraft sustained damage to the nose gear, the right-hand main landing gear, and the propeller.
The investigation
Investigators examined the aircraft's maintenance history and the environmental conditions at the time of the event. Meteorological data indicated a south-easterly surface wind of 10 knots, which was noted to be turbulent at 15 knots. The visibility was reported as CAVOK (ceiling and visibility OK).
Regarding the aircraft's airworthiness, the ZS-IEJ had a valid Certificate of Airworthiness and had undergone its last Mandatory Periodic Inspection (MPI) on 15 November 2006. At the time of the incident, the airframe had flown 28.12 hours since that inspection. Records indicated that all Airworthiness Directives (ADs) and Service Bulletins (SBs) had been complied with, and the aircraft was type accepted. Additionally, recent audits of both the Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO) and the Aviation Training Organisation (ATO) had yielded no major findings.