The pilot and passenger departed from the uncontrolled airport in Boulder, Colorado, on a snow-packed runway and flew locally for about two hours, then returned to land.
The pilot stated that, while in the traffic pattern preparing to land, the runway appeared to be in the same condition as during the departure.
Instead, the runway was slush covered due to the morning sun melting the snow and the airplane veered to the left during landing rollout.
The pilot was unable to maintain directional control and the Cessna 172 hit a snowbank on the edge of the runway and nosed over, which damaged both wings and the vertical stabilizer.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s loss of directional control during the landing roll on the slush-covered runway.
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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.
I’m thinking some one is paying attention, to comments in this postings, at the NTSB:
“Probable Cause: The pilot’s loss of directional control during the landing roll on the slush-covered runway.”
Had been rubber stamping things like this: “Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll on the slush-covered runway.”
So maybe GA pilots do run into problems just like the big guys who have two pilots and a union to back them — when braking is nil which also means steering is nil as well.
This nearly the same situation I watched in KS decades ago when a college student took his mom and pop for an all day venture and upon return to Newton airport landed in the same direction as he T.O. that morning with the wind “T” and sock positioned 180 degrees from the morning. So, he doesn’t call for advisories nor apparently looked at the identifiers for wind direction and landed with a tailwind fighting it all the way down till he flipped the C172 in the wheat planted between the runway and the taxiway.
Morning sun melting snow on an asphalt surface. Pretty predictable.