LAX94LA231 · Cessna 172N
Venture Aviation Cessna 172N · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid while maneuvering
From Polacca Airport (P10) to P10
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA231
- 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
- 1 · 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 172N
- 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
- N6305J
- Operator
- Venture Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Polacca Airport (P10), Chandler, AZTo P10
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he made a low pass over a private airstrip next to a lake, but does not remember the accident sequence. Witnesses in boats stated that the aircraft made a low pass over the airstrip, then flew out over the lake surface at an agl altitude estimated at 50 feet. The aircraft flew for about a mile over the water, then was observed to begin a turn. The left wing tip contacted the water and the aircraft cartwheeled into the lake. One witness was an FAA airframe and powerplant mechanic who works on general aviation aircraft. He reported that the engine sounded strong and normal during the accident sequence from the time the aircraft left the airstrip until it crashed into the lake. The airframe wreckage was recovered from the lake and examined. Control system continuity was established. The engine separated from the airframe during the impact sequence and was not recovered. The witnesses stated that the lake surface was glassy smooth.
Probable cause
the pilot's selection of an inadequate terrain clearance altitude while maneuvering over a lake. A factor in the accident was the calm glassy water conditions which may have affected the pilot's perception of his actual height above the water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA231
- Event ID
- 20001206X01335
- Case number
- LAX94LA231
- 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: dd3fe3b25770b6de8917b078a8fe8a18e356f3a25d3ef7a817c1241eb9be1ccd; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:08:33.682Z.