Cessna 172N N9492E accident near Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to attain the proper touchdown point while landing with a tailwind.

NTSB analysis

According to the pilot, he checked the wind sock, then flew a "standard" traffic pattern at a final approach speed of 70 knots and 20-degrees flaps. He subsequently landed the airplane on runway 1, a

2,007-foot-long runway, “a few hundred feet past the threshold,” and it "seem[ed] as though [he] had a wind shift which became a tailwind." The pilot's subsequent application of brakes did not slow the airplane and during an attempt to turn off the runway, the airplane "would not steer." The airplane overran the end of the runway, went down a 10-foot embankment, nosed over, and sustained damage to the vertical stabilizer and left wing. Winds, recorded at an airport 15 miles to the southeast about the time of the accident, were from 230 degrees true at 9 knots. The pilot did not report any mechanical anomalies with the airplane.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA09CA301 for the full record.