CHI92LA168 · Cessna 172M
Princeton Leasing Cessna 172M · Accident: undershoot during landing
From Middleville, MI (no airport) to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA168
- 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 172M
- 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
- N80490
- Operator
- Princeton Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Middleville, MI (no airport)To 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Dual student › Aircraft preflight, not performed
- Flt control syst, elevator control › Jammed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Proper touchdown point, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT WAS DEMONSTRATING A SHORT-FIELD LANDING, AND LANDED SHORT STRIKING THE RUNWAY END MARKER LIGHTS WITH THE GEAR AND ELEVATOR. NEITHER PILOT OBSERVED THE DAMAGED ELEVATOR AS THEY STOPPED ON THE RUNWAY AFTER THE LANDING. THEY DECIDED TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT. THE DUAL STUDENT COMMENCED THE TAKEOFF, AND THE AIRPLANE PITCHED UP AND STALLED. THE ELEVATOR WAS FOUND BINDING ON THE HORIZONTAL TAIL; BOTH WERE DAMAGED. THE ELEVATOR TRIM WAS FULL NOSE-UP, AND THE FLAPS FULL DOWN.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S MISJUDGEMENT OF THE TOUCHDOWN POINT WHICH RESULTED IN AN UNDERSHOOT AND DAMAGE TO THE ELEVATOR. IN ADDITION, THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND FAILED TO PROPERLY INSPECT THE AIRPLANE FOR DAMAGE PRIOR TO FURTHER FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA168
- Event ID
- 20001211X14809
- Case number
- CHI92LA168
- 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: ffcb135970c4679096da1ff84eb62fca8bbb1f5fc44b809a19c5fb2a09f6732a; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:04:26.352Z.