FTW92LA230 · Cessna 172P
Woody Leslkar Acft. Service Cessna 172P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From W C Ranch Airport (7XS3) to West Houston Airport (IWS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA230
- 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 172P
- 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
- N97489
- Operator
- Woody Leslkar Acft. Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W C Ranch Airport (7XS3), Grapeland, TXTo West Houston Airport (IWS), WEST HOUSTON, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Proper touchdown point, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RENTED AN AIRPLANE FOR A SCENIC FLIGHT IN THE LOCAL AREA. PRIOR TO DEPARTING, HE EXPERIENCED AVIONICS PROBLEMS AND A MECHANIC FOUND A TRIPPED ALTERNATOR CIRCUIT BREAKER, WHICH WAS RESET. AN UNEVENTFUL REFUELING STOP WAS MADE DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS AT A LOCAL AIRPORT. DURING THE SECOND FLIGHT, ELECTRICAL POWER WAS LOST WHEN HE TRIED TO USE A LANDING LIGHT. THE PILOT USED A CIGARETTE LIGHTER TO CROSS CHECK HIS FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS WHILE SEARCHING FOR A SUITABLE PLACE TO LAND. A GRASS AIRPARK WAS FOUND AND THE PILOT INITIATED A VISUAL APPROACH. DURING THE APPROACH TO THE UNLIGHTED STRIP, THE AIRPLANE LANDED SHORT OF THE RUNWAY.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN THE PROPER POINT OF TOUCHDOWN. FACTORS WERE THE POPPED CIRCUIT BREAKER, THE INOPERATIVE ALTERNATOR, AND THE DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA230
- Event ID
- 20001211X15701
- Case number
- FTW92LA230
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-09-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 05343831bd0ac620442ec07f2e80b06bd5aa0eebb3773e7064f9d3dfdb2b9912; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:36:35.897Z.