NTSB Factual Report

On September 26, 2002, approximately 1330 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna R172K, N736PJ, collided with trees during an attempted landing at Shaw Island Airstrip, Shaw Island, Washington. The private pilot and his passenger received minor injuries, and the aircraft, which is owned and operated by Nimbus Corporation, sustained substantial damage. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight, which departed Anacortes, Washington, about 10 minutes earlier, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed. The ELT, which was activated by the accident sequence, was turned off at the scene.

According to the pilot, who operates in and out of the private airstrip on a regular basis, he tried to get the aircraft on the ground before reaching a point where there is an opening in the trees, in order not to be effected by the crosswinds that were blowing. Because his approach was inadvertently higher than he had planned, the aircraft was still in the air when it reached the opening, and a very strong crosswind gust hit the aircraft from the left. Upon encountering the gust, the aircraft's left wing rose upward and the aircraft started to drift off to the right side of the runway. Although the pilot attempted to realign the aircraft with the runway, he was unable to do so before a second gust lifted the wing even higher. As he was trying to compensate for the effects of the wind gusts, the aircraft drifted further to the right and impacted coniferous trees growing just off the right side of the airstrip.

According to the pilot, there was no indication that there had been any malfunction of the aircraft's systems or its flight controls.

NTSB Probable Cause

The pilot's failure to adequately compensate for ambient wind conditions. Factors include the pilot's misjudgment of distance/altitude, gusting crosswinds, and trees growing near the edge of the airstrip.