Primary finding
Probable cause
The pilot's improper landing flare, which resulted in a hard bounced landing.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
The pilot was planning to conduct a touch-and-go landing, and the airplane landed hard and bounced back into the air. The airplane then descended and impacted terrain nose first, which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane's firewall, fuselage, empennage, and wings. Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with an improper landing flare which resulted in a hard, bounced landing.
Source record
Factual narrative
On August 9, 2019, about 1830 central daylight time, a Cessna 150G, N8374J, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Cordell, Oklahoma. The pilot was seriously injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. According to information obtained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector who responded to the accident, the pilot had just received his private pilot certificate for airplane single engine land earlier that day. The pilot performed a touch-and-go-landing to runway 22 at Cordell Municipal Airport (F36). A witness reported that the airplane touched down hard on the turf strip, and a spray of dirt was visible behind the airplane. The airplane bounced and went back into the air, changed to a nose low attitude, and impacted the ground nose first. The pilot did not recall the accident sequence when interviewed by the inspector. A postaccident examination of the airplane by the FAA inspector did not find any mechanical anomalies which would have precluded normal operations. Substantial damage was found to the firewall, fuselage, empennage, and wings.