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FTW92LA179 · Cessna 177

13 Jul 1992 · Nacogdoches, TX, United States

Cessna 177 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing

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Event

NTSB case
FTW92LA179
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
N3425T
Operator
Hamblin, David W. · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
Landing · landing roll
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
Loss of control on ground/water
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 › Directional control, not maintained

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Nacogdoches, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE AIRPLANE LANDED LONG AND PORPOISED AFTER THE FLAPS WERE RETRACTED. THE PILOT APPLIED ABOUT 2 DECONDS OF THROTTLE THEN WENT TO IDLE WHEN HE SAW TREES APPROXIMATELY 1,000 FEET AHEAD OF THE AIRPLANE. THE AIRPLANE PORPOISED AGAIN AND THE PILOT LOST DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. IT VEERED OFF THE RUNWAY, WENT THROUGH HEAVY BRUSH, AND IMPACTED A TREE WITH THE LEFT WING. THE PILOT STATED HE HAD LANDED LONG BECAUSE THE AIRPLANE WAS TOO HIGH AND TOO FAST DURING THE APPROACH TO THE 3,100 FEET AIRSTRIP. HE ESTIMATED HE TOUCHED DOWN APPROXIMATELY 1,800 FEET DOWN THE RUNWAY. THIS LEFT 1,300 FEET OF RUNWAY REMAINING PLUS 500 FEET OF SAFETY AREA BEFORE THE TREE LINE.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. FACTORS WERE THE INADVERTENT PORPOISE OF THE AIRPLANE AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN THE TYPE AIRPLANE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW92LA179
Event ID
20001211X15155
Case number
FTW92LA179
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: a03c92b19e3bc511782b439c2a98365302ab11cea6ea571ad185e6fd5b57390a; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:56:52.821Z.