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LAX94LA186 · Cessna 172P

11 Apr 1994 · Elko, NV, United States

El Aero Services Cessna 172P · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

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Event

NTSB case
LAX94LA186
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 172P

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
N54006
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
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
Landing · aborted
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
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Stall/spin
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

  • Pilot in command › Airspeed(vso), not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Raising of flaps, not performed
  • Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
  • Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, not used

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Elko, NV, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE STUDENT'S FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR WITNESSED THE ACCIDENT. HE REPORTED THAT THE STUDENT WAS ON HIS SECOND SUPERVISED SOLO AND HAD PERFORMED FOUR OR FIVE TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS. ON THE ACCIDENT LANDING, THE AIRPLANE 'BOUNCED FAIRLY HIGH.' THE STUDENT THEN STARTED A LEFT TURN WITH THE POWER REDUCED AND THE FLAPS EXTENDED. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT HE USED THE RADIO IN AN ATTEMPT TO TELL THE STUDENT TO ADD POWER, RETRACT THE FLAPS, AND LOWER THE AIRCRAFT NOSE; HOWEVER, THE STUDENT DID NOT SEEM TO RESPOND TO THE INSTRUCTIONS. THE TURN CONTINUED UNTIL THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A STALL, THEN IMPACTED THE GROUND NOSE FIRST. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION INSPECTORS WHO REPORTED THAT NO DISCREPANCIES WERE FOUND.

Probable cause

the student pilot's improper use of the throttle and flap controls during a bounced landing recovery, and, his failure to maintain an adequate airspeed, which led to an inadvertent stall/spin.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX94LA186
Event ID
20001206X01131
Case number
LAX94LA186
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: 2f4d303f68c43f21bdcba3eef61d3584f1c88c88e563dc361aa66fd41e6b4ba9; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:00:55.184Z.