LAX91LA404 · Cessna 172
North Aire Cessna 172 · Accident: overrun during takeoff
From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA404
- 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 172
- 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
- N738EL
- Operator
- North-Aire
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC), Prescott, AZTo 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Overrun
- 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/mush
- 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 › Raising of flaps, delayed
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE RECENTLY CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT REPORTED THAT SHE WAS PRACTICING TOUCH & GO T.O.'S AND LANDINGS. ON THE THIRD T.O. WITH THE FLAPS EXTENDED 40 DEGREES, THEN SHE PLACED THE FLAP LEVER TO 10 DEGREES. THE AIRPLANE THEN PREMATURELY LIFTED OFF, BUT THE AIRSPEED WAS NOT ACCELERATING. THE PILOT REALIZED THE FLAPS WERE STILL FULLY EXTENDED AND THE AIRPLANE WAS ONLY ABOUT 2-FT OFF THE GROUND AND BEYOND THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT THEN ELECTED TO EXECUTE AN OFF-AIRPORT LANDING IN THE BRUSH COVERED DESERT. RESCUE PERSONNEL REPORTED THAT WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT THE ACCIDENT SITE THE FLAPS WERE RETRACTED. AN FAA INSPECTOR REPORTED THE FLAPS WERE FULLY EXTENDED AND THAT THE FLAP LEVER WAS IN THE FULLY EXTENDED POSITION WHEN HE ARRIVED AT THE ACCIDENT SITE AFTER THE RESCUE PERSONNEL LEFT. HE STATED THAT THE FLAPS OPERATED NORMALLY.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S DELAY IN RAISING THE FLAPS AND THE SUBSEQUENT INADVERTENT STALL/MUSH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA404
- Event ID
- 20001212X18130
- Case number
- LAX91LA404
- 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: df74f7af30d0c8ac499ff6e0b8a596e96ea95d10ff8aa9bbccaf367eb098bbd2; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:40:09.194Z.