MIA91LA173 · Cessna 172N
Stetson Air Cessna 172N · Accident: on ground/water encounter with weather during landing
From Zephyrhills Municipal Airport (ZPH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA173
- 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 172N
- 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
- N6522D
- Operator
- Stetson Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zephyrhills Municipal Airport (ZPH), Zephyrhills, FLTo 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
- On ground/water encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Wind information, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS ADVISED ON THE UNICOM FREQUENCY THAT THE WIND WAS FAVORING RWY 33, BUT HE DID NOT OBSERVE THE WINDSOCK TO VERIFY THIS. AFTER TOUCHDOWN DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE ACFT TRAVELLED OFF THE RWY INTO A DITCH & NOSED OVER. HE FURTHER STATED THAT AFTER THE ACCIDENT HE OBSERVED AIRPLANES LANDING ON RWY 15. A THUNDERSTORM WITH MODERATED RAIN SHOWERS WAS LOCATED 22 NM SSE OF THE ACCIDENT ARPT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO OBSERVE THE WINDSOCK BEFORE LANDING RESULTING IN FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AFTER LANDING WITH A QUARTERING TAILWIND. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A DITCH. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE OF THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA173
- Event ID
- 20001212X17347
- Case number
- MIA91LA173
- 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: 93b39c438835112686a92a09513592a218ce4a130cdc3db6ca5e964022258963; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:01:08.953Z.