The student pilot reported that some birds moved over the runway at the airport in Ocean City, Maryland, when he was about to land the Cessna 172.
He applied full power and retracted the flaps to initiate a go-around, however the plane touched down and departed the left side of the runway.
The nose and both wings hit the grass before the airplane came to rest upright.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during an attempted go-around to avoid birds, which resulted in a runway excursion and subsequent nose-over.
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This March 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.
Way too much context missing in the GA staff’s intro: Read his actual Narrative, although it’s a bit difficult d/t rough penmanship.
He encounters a flock of birds at low altitude; he DIVES under the birds at @ 30′ AGL, and then attempts to recover from nose low pitch & increased airspeed; he does sense a bird strike & makes the decision to go around from @ 15′ AGL (?), but changes his mind.
He didn’t stall, he went off the runway after he “aborted ” the go-around attempt–which included “pulling the power”.
He also claims to have “adjusted the flaps”, not “retracted” them, so we have no idea where they were set.
Plus he’s a helicopter guy; we’ll forgive him for doing something “unnatural” compared to an autorotation….
Seems to me an aborted landing is usually taught as a rather spastic exercise.
He may have slammed the throttle and hauled back on the controls when the plane went left, he is a student.
If he stalled immediately with flap retraction, then his speed was way too low maybe for any flap retraction. A C172S will slow-fly and even climb surprisingly well with full flaps and reasonable conditions and weight, so for that model flap retraction is not so critical. With other models with less power and 40 degree flaps it could be much different. Train go-arounds at safe altitude from absolute minimum speed to see what works best.
As I recall, full power and flaps set to 20, not retracted before AIRSPEED builds.
And it takes right rudder plus forward elevator pressure during the initial part of the go-around.