CHI98LA195 · Cessna 172E
Cessna 172E · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From 3C0 to Daviess County Airport (DCY)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI98LA195
- 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 172E
- 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
- N3933S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3C0To Daviess County Airport (DCY), Washington, IN
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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
- On ground/water collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot attempted a short field takeoff on runway 18 but aborted the takeoff when he became aware that the aircraft would not clear electric lines that were at the south end of the airport. The pilot stated that he taxied the aircraft to the end of the field and positioned the aircraft for a second takeoff, this time on runway 36. The pilot stated that the aircraft did not rotate at a point that was needed to clear a tree line that was north of the airport. The pilot aborted the takeoff and applied the brakes. The pilot stated that the last 1/4 of the runway had just been mowed and tire traction was reduced substantially. The aircraft slid off the end of the runway and impacted a 2.5' tall dirt pile. Post accident investigation showed that the aircraft was within weight and balance limitations, as stated in the Pilot's Operating Handbook (POH) and the aircraft's weight and balance data sheet. Takeoff performance figures were calculated using the POH, using the weather conditions on the occurrence date, and were to be found to be within stated limitations. No engine or aircraft anomalies were found with the aircraft in question.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning that failed to ensure takeoff could be attained. Other related factors were the aborted takeoff, grass, and a dirt bank.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI98LA195
- Event ID
- 20001211X10242
- Case number
- CHI98LA195
- 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: 15ef1bcc3614ef867456b821657defb4de64d934fb142271f6df5198e7ccd28f; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:41:24.845Z.