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MIA99LA148 · Cessna 172N

4 May 1999 · Eagleville, TN, United States

Flymasters Flying Club Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb

From T-Top Airfield (TN14) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
MIA99LA148
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
N739EW
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From T-Top Airfield (TN14)To 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
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
Wire, transmission; 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

  • Dual student › Altitude/clearance, inadequate
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

While simulating a loss of engine power for a third time, the airplane was landed with an approximate 10 knot tailwind, 1/2 way down the 3,000 foot grass runway with full flaps. After touchdown, the student reset the flaps and applied full power for a go-around without delay. During the climb out, the left wing collided with an unmarked phone line about 25 feet above ground level. The right wing of the airplane then collided with a tree which separated about 8-10 feet of that wing. The airplane then descended and impacted the ground coming to rest about 135 feet from the tree impact point. The certified flight instructor stated that there was no engine, airframe, or system failure or malfunction. He also stated that he did not notice the unmarked phone line during that flight or during the previous 8-10 times he flew to that airstrip, but he did notice the trees during the climb just prior to the phone line contact. The flaps were determined to be extended approximately 5 degrees and no failure or malfunction of the flap system was noted.

Probable cause

The dual's student failure to maintain adequate altitude/clearance from the wire during takeoff/initial climb. Also causal was the certified flight instructor's inadequate supervision.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA99LA148
Event ID
20001212X18838
Case number
MIA99LA148
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: 1916ca788809a27989116957553484147c82d5639b2ad9d70793f8f228e2ccfe; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:20:33.994Z.