BFO93LA156 · Cessna 172P
Air Chesterfield Cessna 172P · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport (BCB) to Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport (BCB)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA156
- 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
- 1 · 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 172P
- 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
- N50927
- Operator
- Air Chesterfield
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport (BCB), Blacksburg, VATo Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport (BCB)
- 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
- 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)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE WAS FLYING THE AIRPLANE OVER CLIMBING MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WITH THREE PASSENGERS ON BOARD. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE DID NOT THINK THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE WAS DEVELOPING ENOUGH POWER TO MAKE IT TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN SO HE INITIATED A LEFT 180-DEGREE TURN TO GO BACK DOWN THE MOUNTIAN'S SIDE. DURING THE TURN, THE AIRPLANE LOST ALTITUDE AND THE AIRPLANE'S LEFT WING IMPACTED A TREE. THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED TO DESCEND THROUGH THE TREES AND CAME TO REST INVERTED. THE PILOT STATED AFTER THE ACCIDENT THAT THERE WERE NO INDICATIONS OF AN ENGINE PROBLEM IN THE COCKPIT PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT AND HE DID NOT THINK THERE WERE ANY ENGINE OR AIRFRAME ANOMALIES PRIOR TO IMPACTING THE TREE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE WHILE MANUEVERING IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA156
- Event ID
- 20001211X13332
- Case number
- BFO93LA156
- 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: 8acd6ebb6e20834ed3609a643d0817d420ae401415364082ef78a15ace2f0681; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:24:07.359Z.