ATL93LA103 · Cessna 172F
Cessna 172F · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From No airport to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93LA103
- 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 172F
- 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
- N8279U
- Operator
- Hall, William J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo No airport
- 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 pattern downwind
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Airspeed, excessive
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT DURING ENGINE RUN UP, PRIOR TO DEPARTURE FROM HIS PRIVATE SOD AIRFIELD, HE OBSERVED BOTH FUEL GAUGES FAIL. HE STATED THAT HE HAD VISUALLY CHECKED HIS FUEL, AND HAD SUFFICIENT FUEL FOR HIS INTENDED FLIGHT. HE CONTINUED WITH THE FLIGHT. DURING HIS PREPARATION FOR LANDING AT THE AIRFIELD, WHEN HE PLACED THE FLAP LEVER TO THE APPROACH POSITION, THE FLAPS WOULD NOT EXTEND. AS HE WAS UNSURE OF HIS FUEL STATUS, HE STATED THAT HE DECIDED TO CONTINUE AND LAND AT THE SHORT SOD FIELD. HE USED A HIGHER THAN NORMAL APPROACH SPEED, AND INTENDED TO USE A ROAD LEADING TO THE AIRSTRIP FOR AN OVERRUN, IF NECESSARY. AFTER LANDING, HE WAS UNABLE TO CONTROL EITHER THE BRAKES OR THE RUDDER. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK AN ABANDONED BUS AND OTHER EQUIPMENT AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY, AND RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. THE PILOT STATED THAT FOLLOWING THE ACCIDENT, HIS FRONT SEAT PASSENGER WAS HEARD TO COMMENT THAT PRIOR TO THE LANDING, HE HAD BRACED HIMSELF WITH HIS FEET. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE FRONT SEAT PASSENGER HAD HIS FEET ON THE AIRCRAFT RUDDER PEDALS, WHICH EXPLAINED HIS LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE BRAKES AND RUDDER
Probable cause
THE CONTINUATION OF THE LANDING ATTEMPT INTO THE SHORT SOD FIELD WITHOUT THE USE OF FLAPS AND THE USE OF EXCESSIVE AIRSPEED BY THE PILOT. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT WERE THE FAILURE OF THE AIRCRAFT FLAPS TO EXTEND
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93LA103
- Event ID
- 20001211X12529
- Case number
- ATL93LA103
- 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: 839b683e3dbeebed3174a211212ebb30dcc9d8228abe91bf7190ab82b4d0edd2; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:56:00.984Z.