The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating three hard landings at Oahu airports that occurred separately over a span of 25 days between January and February.
Two of the incidents involved Cessna aircraft; the other involved a glider. No one was injured in any of the accidents, although all three aircraft were damaged, as was a runway sign.
On Jan. 26, a Cessna 172P operated by Moore Air Inc. and piloted by a 20-year-old student pilot from Minnesota suffered a bouncy landing on return from Kalaeloa Airport in Kapolei to Honolulu Airport.
According to the pilot’s report to NTSB, the plane had a "firm" touchdown and bounced twice before the pilot was instructed to "go around" (abort the landing by re-ascending) by the control tower.
The pilot was unable to execute the maneuver and the aircraft veered left into a grassy area and hit a runway sign before stopping.
The pilot was able to get out of the aircraft normally. The plane sustained damage to its left main gear, firewall, left elevator and horizontal stabilizer.
The accident happened under clear conditions.
On Feb. 2, a Cessna CE-172S owned and operated by Noah Flying Inc. and piloted by a 48-year-old Japanese flight instructor flipped upside down after a hard landing at Dillingham Airfield.
The pilot reported that he felt "unusual sink rate and turbulent" air as he leveled the plane just before landing.
He said he unsuccessfully attempted to correct the plane before it struck the runway.
The pilot attempted a go-around, but "I (noticed) airplane didn’t fly what I wanted to fly," according to the pilot’s account.
The Cessna rolled off the runway to a grassy area, nose-down, before flipping over and stopping.
The pilot indicated in his report that he should have checked airspeed and used more power to avoid the hard landing.
Neither the pilot nor his two Japanese passengers were hurt. Damage to the aircraft was listed as "substantial."
On Feb. 20, a Grob 103A glider owned and operated by Hawaii Glider School and piloted by a 21-year-old student pilot from Japan bounced three times as it was landing at Dillingham Airfield.
According to a report filed with NTSB, the pilot rushed the landing and started a "pilot induced oscillation." The plane bounced off the runway three times as the pilot attempted to assert control over the craft.
"On the third bounce, (the pilot) did nothing and the glider leveled off at about five feet and then descended to the ground in a level attitude," the report said. "The glider then rolled to a stop about 150 feet from the touchdown point."
The glider sustained substantial damage, according to the report.
Mechanical failure was not cited as a cause in any of the three accidents.
