CHI94LA011 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From K84 · Lee's Summit, MO to 3IP
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA011
- 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
- N738LX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From K84 · Lee's Summit, MOTo 3IP
- 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 final
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Independence, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AS THE AIRPLANE WAS ON FINAL APPROACH TO LAND ON RUNWAY 35, ITS LANDING GEAR STRUCK THE HOOD AND WINDSHIELD OF AN AUTOMOBILE. THE AUTOMOBILE WAS WESTBOUND ON A ROAD LOCATED ALONG THE SOUTH BOUNDARY OF THE AIRPORT. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE STALL WARNING SOUNDED DURING SHORT FINAL. HE STATED HE DROPPED THE NOSE AND BELIEVED HE COULD REACH THE RUNWAY, WHEN SUDDENLY HE FELT AN IMPACT. THE PASSENGER IN THE CAR REPORTED SHE SAW THE AIRPLANE COMING IN '. . . VERY SLOW, VERY LOW AND FLUTTERING FROM SIDE TO SIDE . . .' AND SHE THOUGHT IT WOULD PASS OVERHEAD. THE PILOT STATED HE DID NOT SEE THE CAR BEFORE IMPACT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S MISJUDGMENT OF DISTANCE, ALTITUDE, AND SPEED ON FINAL APPROACH TO LAND, AND FAILURE TO MAINTAIN OBSTACLE CLEARANCE FROM THE VEHICLE. THE PROXIMITY OF THE VEHICLE TO THE APPROACH PATH WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA011
- Event ID
- 20001211X13535
- Case number
- CHI94LA011
- 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: 17c12ba9723ae540d3a777d0dface5c966d6ea2d4c6a4c91a11a40ff6790ab4b; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:32:28.414Z.