According to the pilot, while conducting a low altitude pass over a frozen, snow-covered lake near Palmer, Alaska, he misjudged the Cessna 172’s height above the ground.
The airplane’s landing gear contacted the snow and the airplane descended.
The left wing and propeller struck the ground and the airplane came to rest upright on the snow-covered terrain, sustaining substantial damage to the left wing.
The pilot stated there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
In the recommendation section of the NTSB Accident/Incident Reporting Form 6120.1, the pilot stated that the accident may have been prevented if he had done a better job of evaluating the flight scenario and had properly addressed the risks involved with low level flight over a snow-covered landscape.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from snow-covered terrain while maneuvering at low altitude.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This February 2020 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Stay in the air.
Stay aware from the edges of the air.
That is where all the trouble happens.
Seems pretty low if you aren’t landing….which then equates to expensive.
Now I’ll back to read the posts about spiraling insurance premiums.
Does the insurance actually pay out on something like this. Don’t make sense.
If you damage your plane without a valid annual, medical ect. They don’t pay. Why would the insurance pay on something like this?
Same problem with judging height over glassy water.
You know that’s true; but I’m assuming you’re close to glassy water for a valid reason—takeoff or landing—and are using “proven techniques” to mitigate the lack of visual cues for judging height.
In this case, the guy was just out screwing around, trying to impress his two Florida buddies & it bit him in the butt…. “checking out animal tracks”. You can’t fix stupid.