IAD97LA036 · Cessna 172N
Tristate Airways Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From 47N to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD97LA036
- 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 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
- N738UW
- Operator
- Tristate Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 47NTo 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/mush
- 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 › Go-around, not performed
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not complied with
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Manville, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
After a local flight, the pilot entered the traffic pattern for runway 25, which was 3,450 feet in length. The pilot reported that he kept track of the airplane in front due to the sun glare from a setting sun and a very old windscreen, which 'almost totally wiped out the runway environment.' The pilot stated that the approach to the runway was high and fast. After touchdown just beyond the windsock, the airplane bounced twice and the pilot decided to abort the landing. The pilot stated that he added full power, raised the flaps in 10 degree increments, and the airplane proceeded to 'mush into the bushes and trees' prior to the end of the runway on the north side. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the flaps were up, and the carburetor switch in the 'on' position.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to perform a go-around, and his failure to retract the flaps in increments.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD97LA036
- Event ID
- 20001208X07179
- Case number
- IAD97LA036
- 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: 7a29d63e5bc81027c9a21a665f2f5ef892846c669ac7ef50a93fed2d77fb93fc; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:31:56.641Z.