Cessna 172 N12267 accident near Defuniak Springs, Florida

Probable cause

The student pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the aborted landing.

NTSB analysis

According to the student pilot, he was performing touch-and-go takeoffs and landings following his first cross-country solo flight. He reported that, during his last landing, the airplane touched down "all the way to the right side of the runway," so he aborted the landing. He shut off the carburetor heat and applied power, and the airplane's nose pitched up and turned left. The airplane impacted the grass safety area on the left side of the runway in a nose-down attitude. The airplane came to rest inverted after striking a drainage culvert and sustained substantial damage to the right-wing lift strut and aileron.

The student reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for GAA18CA299 for the full record.