| Crash location | 43.514444°N, 112.070278°W |
| Nearest city | Idaho Falls, ID
43.466581°N, 112.034137°W 3.8 miles away |
| Tail number | N5204K |
|---|---|
| Accident date | 03 Feb 2005 |
| Aircraft type | Cessna 172N |
| Additional details: | None |
On February 3, 2005, at 1230 mountain standard time, a Cessna 172N, N5204K, sustained substantial damage when it nosed over following a loss of directional control during the landing roll at Idaho Falls Regional Airport, Idaho Falls, Idaho. The student pilot and the flight instructor were not injured. The airplane was registered to Teton Leasing LLC of Pocatello, Idaho, and operated by Avcenter, Inc. of Pocatello. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR Part 91 local instructional flight. The flight originated at Idaho Falls at 1215.
According to a written statement provided by the flight instructor, he and his student were performing touch and go landings on runway 35. On the second landing, the airplane touched down smoothly, and the flight instructor was "critiquing" the student's landing, when the student "unexpectedly added full power causing the plane to jerk to the left." The flight instructor reduced power and applied the brakes. He was unable to prevent the airplane from exiting the runway. When the nose wheel entered the "foot and a half deep snow" beside the runway, the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. The outboard left wing, the vertical stabilizer, and the wing struts sustained structural damage.
The student pilot's failure to maintain directional control and the instructor's inadequate supervision of the flight. A contributing factor was the deep snow beside the runway.