ATL94FA036 · Cessna 172H
Cessna 172H · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Orlando Executive Airport (ORL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94FA036
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172H
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N1432F
- Operator
- Elrod, James E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Flight control, gust lock › Not removed
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT WAS TAKING OFF FROM A PRIVATE, GRASS AIRSTRIP. HE STATED THAT HE WAS IN A HURRY, AND FORGOT TO REMOVE THE CONTROL WHEEL LOCK PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT. ONCE AIRBORNE, HE ELECTED TO TURN THE AIRCRAFT TO THE RIGHT AND LAND. THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED IN AN OPEN, GRASS FIELD AND CAME TO REST IN A NOSE LOW ATTITUDE. AN INSPECTION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT THE PILOT WAS USING A 2 INCH RIVET INSTEAD OF AN APPROVED CONTROL WHEEL LOCK. THE RIVET WAS NOT PAINTED OR MARKED BY A FLAG. THE RIVET WAS STILL INSTALLED IN THE YOKE SLEEVE, WHICH WOULD LOCK THE CONTROLS, AND THE YOKE CONTROL TUBE WAS FRACTURED AT THE HOLE WHERE THE RIVET WAS INSTALLED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE AIRCRAFT PREFLIGHT INSPECTION, IN THAT HE DID NOT REMOVE THE FLIGHT CONTROL GUST LOCK PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT. A FACTOR WAS THE USE OF AN UNAPPROVED, UNMARKED RIVET AS A FLIGHT CONTROL LOCK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94FA036
- Event ID
- 20001206X00577
- Case number
- ATL94FA036
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a7bbeeef6f4c19c9cc01c9b21b8801c9698f8ca1891a6c3a1f339e9616c5c7b0; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:05:53.319Z.