BFO95LA014 · Cessna 172L
Cessna 172L · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From 0B1 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO95LA014
- 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 172L
- 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
- N19735
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 0B1To 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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(cfi) › Aircraft control, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Bethel, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A DUAL INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, THE CFI INITIATED A PRACTICE FORCED LANDING. ACCORDING TO THE CFI THE STUDENT PILOT SELECTED 30 DEGREES OF FLAPS AND MADE '...CORRECT ACTIONS TO COUNTERACT A LEFT CROSSWIND...' WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH TO THE RUNWAY. THE CFI STATED: 'PRIOR TO TOUCHDOWN OF THE LEFT MAIN WHEEL, WE EXPERIENCED A VERY STRONG GUST OF WIND FROM THE RIGHT (ALMOST A 180 DEGREE SHEAR).' THE CFI TOOK CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE, ADDED POWER AND RAISED THE WING FLAPS FOR A GO-AROUND. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES LOCATED OFF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY.
Probable cause
the flight instructor's failure to ensure adequate control of the airplane during a go-around. The gusty wind conditions were contributing factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO95LA014
- Event ID
- 20001206X02560
- Case number
- BFO95LA014
- 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: a57af332a2272e3ab00daf733c16a2677546a73aa7ea0075dcd0ee4613782289; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:26:25.862Z.