N93455

On October 25, 2001, about 1157 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 152, N93455, operated by Naples Air Center Inc., as a Title 14 CFR Part 91 instructional flight, impacted with a windsock and nosed over at the Marco Island Airport, Marco Island, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. No flight plan was filed. The airplane was substantially damaged. The student pilot reported no injuries. The flight had originated from the Naples Airport at 1130.

According to the student pilot, he was performing a solo practice flight, had completed one successful touch and go, and had come around to do another one, planning to land on runway 17. He said that he touched down with a "slight partial crosswind," and at an airspeed of about 60 knots. The airplane was "slightly crabbed" upon landing to compensate for the crosswind. As the airplane touched down he said, "...I could see and feel the plane moving from the center of the runway in the direction of the crosswind." He tried to compensate with the opposite rudder, but the airplane continued to head off the runway. The airplane departed the left side of the runway, and the pilot attempted to stop the airplane by applying the brakes, without success. As the airplane departed the runway it struck a windsock, entered sandy, soft, wet ground, and continued to travel until the nosewheel sank into mud causing the airplane to nose over.

A witness statement taken by a sheriff's deputy from a student pilot that had landed after the accident airplane, revealed that the pilot of N93455 had cut in front of him while the witness was on a long downwind for a landing on the same runway. He indicated that the accident airplane was "high and fast" touching down on the runway almost at midfield. He watched the airplane depart the runway and nose over. Measurements taken by the sheriff's deputy revealed that the airplane traveled 3/10 of mile from the runway threshold to the point where it departed the runway. The airplane traveled 540 feet before striking the windsock, and continued in a southeasterly direction for 78 feet where it came to rest.

According to the operator of the airplane, the student pilot had received his class 1 medical in France, and had come to the United States with his student pilot's certificate already in his possession. The student pilot had started flying at Naples Air Center on October 1, 2001, and had accumulated 40 hours of flight time, all in Cessna 152 aircraft.

The winds at the Naples Airport, about the time of the accident, and located about 18 miles north of the crash site were reported to have been from 240 degrees at 4 knots.