CHI98LA225 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Oakland County International Airport (PTK) to Dalton Airport (3DA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI98LA225
- 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 172
- 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
- N20043
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oakland County International Airport (PTK), Pontiac, MITo Dalton Airport (3DA)
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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); Stall/spin
- 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, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Flushing, MI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A witness reported seeing the airplane approach the runway threshold at a high rate of speed and altitude at an approximate 45-degree descent angle. According to the witness, the airplane pitched up steeply and eventually level off and '...flying at a safe speed.' Other witnesses saw the airplane strike the trees as past near their home. The pilot said the airplane was in ground affect and nearing trees at the runway s departure end. He said he added full power and retracted his flaps until he finished his 5-count. He said the airplane s tires collided with the tress and shortly after that, the airplane stalled and rolled left, descending vertically into the roof of a shed. The pilot said he uses the airspeed indicator and altimeter to help him judge the glide path to landing. He said he aims the airplane s nose at the runway aiming point and flares when the airplane approach is stabilized. Interviews with 2 of the pilots flight instructors revealed they were unable to explain how to to fly a final approach then land the airplane on the first quarter of the runway.
Probable cause
was a delayed go-around maneuver by the pilot. Factors associated with this accident were the pilot misjudging his final approach altitude and glide path, having inadequate altitude to clear the trees at the end of the runway, and inadequate training on how to fly a final approach and make a landing on the first quarter of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI98LA225
- Event ID
- 20001211X10271
- Case number
- CHI98LA225
- 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: 722820aefae125fe21520c8c69802666ef47c82f8d3ba5546829f1ef0e75400d; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:47:51.146Z.