Accident Details
Probable Cause and Findings
The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate approach airspeed which resulted in a excessive descent rate and hard landing and the pilot's failure to recover from a bounced landing. A factor was the pilot's lack of total experience.
Aircraft Information
Registered Owner (Historical)
Analysis
On February 14, 1999, at 1317 central standard time, a Cessna 150M airplane, N6405K, was substantially damaged when it impacted a runway marker while landing at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The student pilot, who was the sole occupant, was not injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by Geaux Flying Ltd. of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was not filed for the 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 training flight which originated at 1245.
During a telephone interview conducted by the investigator-in-charge, the student pilot stated that during final approach for Runway 4R, he noticed that the airspeed was low. The pilot added some power; however, the aircraft's rate of descent was "too fast" and the airplane landed "hard." The student pilot then stated that the plane "bounced and veered to the left side of the runway" where it impacted a runway marker sign with the nose landing gear. The airplane then slid through the grass in between two runways and came to rest upright on runway 31.
The pilot reported that the winds were "calm" at the time of the accident.
Inspection of the airplane by an FAA inspector revealed that the nose landing gear was collapsed, and the engine fire wall was buckled. The runway marker sign was destroyed.
At the time of the accident, the student pilot had accumulated a total of 19 hours flight time.
Data Source
Data provided by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). For more information on this event, visit the NTSB Records Search website. NTSB# FTW99LA082