MIA95FA094 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From an unrecorded airport to Punta Gorda Airport (PGD)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95FA094
- 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
- 2 · 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
- N2196E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Punta Gorda Airport (PGD), Punta Gorda, 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS BRIEFED ABOUT 2 HOURS BEFORE TAKEOFF THAT FOG EXISTED NEAR HIS DESTINATION AIRPORT AND TO CALL BACK FOR A WEATHER UPDATE; HE DID NOT. THE PILOT TOLD THE SURVIVORS BEFORE TAKEOFF 'WE'RE A LITTLE OVER WEIGHT, I'M NOT SURE IF WE'RE GOING TO TAKEOFF.' AFTER TAKEOFF THE FLIGHT WAS OBSERVED TO FLY INTO THE FOG SEVERAL TIMES AND THE AIRPLANE FLEW OVER THE AIRPORT 3 TIMES. AFTER THE THIRD PASS THE PILOT TOLD THE SURVIVORS HE WAS GOING TO LAND ON THE NEXT ATTEMPT. THE FLIGHT AGAIN ENTERED THE FOG FOR A LONGER DURATION THIS TIME AND THE SURVIVORS STATED THAT THEY AGAIN HEARD THE STALL WARNING HORN. THE PILOT APPLIED POWER BUT THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED NOSE AND RIGHT WING LOW. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE WATER ABOUT 5-10 SECONDS AFTER THE STALL WARNING HORN WAS HEARD. WITNESSES AND THE SURVIVORS STATED THAT THE ENGINE SOUNDED NORMAL THE ENTIRE FLIGHT. THE AIRPLANE WAS RECOVERED AND EXAMINATION OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. THE PILOT'S MEDICAL CERTIFICATE EXPIRED AFTER DECEMBER 31, 1990, AND HE WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED.
Probable cause
INTENTIONAL VFR FLIGHT INTO IMC BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND, FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL, SPATIAL DISORIENTATION, AND ALTITUDE INADEQUATE FOR RECOVERY FOLLOWING THE IN FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95FA094
- Event ID
- 20001207X03158
- Case number
- MIA95FA094
- 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: dcf16a93053ae44f980c1efd8810e2c37549d231c554dd16c89faaa491eee0d7; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:50:27.822Z.