Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

On March 23, 2003, approximately 1550 mountain standard time, a Cessna 172S, N3544Q, operated by Rocky Mountain Flight Consultants, LLC, of Boulder, Colorado, was substantially damaged when it nosed over during landing at the Tri-County Airport, Erie, Colorado. The commercial certificated flight instructor received no injuries and the student sustained minor injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed for the instructional flight being conducted under Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight originated at Erie approximately 1430.

According to the flight instructor, she was demonstrating a crosswind landing to her student. She estimated the wind to be from 270 degrees at 15 to 20 knots. After landing on runway 33, the airplane veered to the right. She applied full power in an attempt to abort the landing, but could not return the airplane to the runway centerline. She then closed the throttle. The airplane departed the runway, settled in snow-covered mud, and nosed over. The left wing lift strut was bent and the wing was buckled. the pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during aborted landing. Contributing factors include the crosswind component, and the snow covered muddy terrain.