MIA92LA136 · Cessna 177
Cessna 177 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Mayo, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92LA136
- 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 177
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N3413T
- Operator
- Larry Donald
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Mayo, FL
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Mixture, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES STATED THE PLT LANDED ON THE 3000 FT GRASS RWY, THINKING HE HAD LANDED ON A 4000 FT RWY ABOUT 5 MI TO THE WEST. THEY ADZD HIM NOT TO TAKEOFF IN THE 95 DEG TEMP. THE PLT DECIDED TO TAKEOFF AND USE ALL OF THE AVAILABLE RWY. HE SAID HE LEANED THE MIXTURE AND USED 1/4 FLAPS FOR TAKEOFF. WHILE CLIMBING OVER A ROW OF TREES AT THE END OF THE RWY, THE PLT BELIEVED THERE WAS A SLIGHT POWER LOSS. THE ACFT THEN SETTLED INTO A SECOND ROW OF TREES (60 TO 70 FT TALL) & CRASHED. THE WITNESSES RPRTD THE ENG WAS PROVIDING FULL POWER UNTIL IMPACT. THE ENG TACHOMETER WAS FOUND TO READ 150 RPM HI, BUT NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OF MALFUNCTION OF THE ENG WAS FOUND. THE FLT MANUAL INDCD THE ENG SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN LEANED FOR TAKEOFF BELOW 5000 FT. PERFORMANCE CHARTS SHOWED THAT THE ACFT WOULD HAVE NEEDED 2025 FT TO CLR A 50 FT OBSTACLE.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, AND HIS IMPROPER USE OF THE MIXTURE CONTROL, WHICH RESULTED IN HIS FAILURE TO ATTAIN SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO CLEAR TREES NEAR THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE PROXIMITY OF TREES WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92LA136
- Event ID
- 20001211X14935
- Case number
- MIA92LA136
- 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: 5d1e7a4821a52550c719b9f3466e22f13a36b8cca166f1e05d669811cd9cec11; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:15:24.412Z.