The student pilot reported that, after being endorsed for his first solo flight, he made three approaches and three landings at the airport in Pueblo, Colorado.
During the third approach, the nose of the Diamond DA20 yawed to the right, and he applied left rudder to correct the right yaw, but was unsuccessful.
About 15 feet AGL, he aborted the landing and applied full engine power but, “the aircraft jerked and continued to descend with right yaw.”
The airplane landed on the runway with the nose oriented to the right of the runway heading. The airplane exited the right side of the runway and stopped after encountering rough terrain.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the tail and empennage.
The METAR at the airport reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was variable at 4 knots.
Probable Cause: The student pilot’s failure to maintain the runway heading during an attempted aborted landing, which resulted in a runway excursion onto rough terrain.
This August 2019 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.
