BFO93LA184 · Cessna 172
Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA184
- 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
- N9841L
- Operator
- Civil Air Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG), HAMPTON ROADS, VATo 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
- 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 object
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT PERFORMED A SUCCESSFUL PRECAUTIONARY LANDING ON A SHORT SECTION OF A COUNTY HIGHWAY WITH OBSTACLES ON BOTH ENDS OF THE SECTION. THE PRECAUTIONARY LANDING WAS PRECIPITATED BY A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. AFTER THE LANDING, THE PILOT DRAINED THE FUEL TANK SUMPS AND FOUND A SMALL QUANTITY OF WATER IN THE LEFT FUEL CELL. AFTER NOTING NO PROBLEMS DURING AN ENGINE RUN-UP, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO TAKE OFF FROM THE SHORT SECTION OF HIGHWAY. HE ABORTED THE TAKEOFF, BUT COULD NOT SAFELY STOP THE AIRPLANE. IT IMPACTED TREES. BOTH WINGS AND THE VERTICAL STABILIZER WERE DAMAGED. THE PILOT REPORTED NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS, AND AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF PRE-IMPACT MECHANICAL DEFICIENCIES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF UNSUITABLE TERRAIN FOR A TAKEOFF. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S DELAY IN INITIATING AN ABORTED TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA184
- Event ID
- 20001211X13354
- Case number
- BFO93LA184
- 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: f1949414d34f3cbe985e6ce7c6a2a820b5693ebbf03f1fcaefe24058a0d980cd; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:35:36.404Z.