Cessna 172 N N739UG accident near Williamstown, New Jersey

Probable cause

The student pilot's inability to maintain directional control during the attempted aborted landing. Contributing to the severity of the accident were the trees.

NTSB analysis

The student pilot of the Cessna 172N departed his home airport for a short solo flight to another airport, where he made an uneventful full-stop landing, before returning to his home airport. The student pilot reported that while attempting to land on runway 27, the airplane was "blowing around quite a bit." During the landing attempt, the airplane bounced twice, and the pilot decided to perform a go-around. He applied power, and attempted to maintain 70 knots as he began the climbout; however, the airplane veered left, and "would not climb." The student pilot aborted the takeoff, and the airplane subsequently struck trees adjacent to a taxiway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to its wings and cabin structure during the collision. According to the student pilot's certificated flight instructor (CFI), the winds at the time of the accident were no more than 5 knots, but the windsock was "dancing." The CFI added that the winds were favoring runway 27, but might have switched to favor runway 9 at the time of the accident. The recorded conditions about the time of the accident, at an airport 13 miles northwest of the accident location, were winds from 020 degrees at 8 knots, and a temperature of 31 degrees Celsius. The pilot had accumulated approximately 15 total hours of flight experience, 3 hours of which were conducted solo. The student pilot did not report any mechanical anomalies with the airplane.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for NYC08CA250 for the full record.