Cessna 152 N4649L accident near Redlands, California

Probable cause

The flight instructor’s delayed remedial action and failure to maintain airplane control while performing a simulated aborted landing.

NTSB analysis

The flight instructor reported that, during a solo training flight, which included an unusual attitude recovery from an aborted landing, he told the student pilot to set up the approach. As the airplane entered the landing flare, the flight instructor pitched the airplane for a higher-than-normal attitude to simulate a balloon effect. Once the airplane started to "slow/stall," the flight instructor told the student pilot to perform a go-around. The student pilot advanced the throttle full forward, but it took "a full second" for the engine to achieve full power, and, by that time, the airplane had stalled and was left of the runway centerline. The flight instructor took the controls and corrected the airplane to the right. The airplane subsequently struck the runway in a left-wing-low attitude, bounced two times, and came to rest adjacent to the runway. A witness to the accident reported that the engine was producing power at the time of the accident.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for WPR11LA443 for the full record.