MIA99LA194 · Cessna 177RG
Cessna 177RG · Accident: airframe, component or system failure
From Huntsville International Airport (HSV) to JFX
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99LA194
- 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 177RG
- 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
- N2619V
- Operator
- David W. Abbott · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Huntsville International Airport (HSV), Huntsville, ALTo JFX
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
About 22 miles from the airport the pilot said the airplane's electrical system became inoperative, resulting in a total loss of electrical power. The pilot was unable to activate the runway lights at the airport, because the airplane's radios were inoperative, and he could not activate the runway lighting system. The pilot stated he found the airport, but could not see the runway. He decided to land without any lights. He adjusted the flaps to no avail, because the flaps were electric. Just before touching down he could see the white strips on the runway to his left. The airplane touched down, but the right landing gear was off the runway on the grass. He applied power to make a second attempt. On the second landing, when he saw the white strips, he was 'right on them,' flared, but bounced, and the airplane floated. When he touched down again, 'the plane felt as if it was skidding sideways,' and he decided to go around again. He said, 'I guess I must have become somewhat disoriented, as I banked left much too soon thinking I remembered trees at the end of the runway. At that moment I saw the outlines of tree tops in front of me. I tried to pick the lowest point, but struck one. The plane began to tumble, and the I was on the ground hanging upside down from the seat belt.' A test run was performed on the engine and no discrepancies were found. The alternator and voltage regulator were tested, and both units bench checked with no defects.
Probable cause
the pilot inadvertently became disoriented and misjudged his position on the runway/airport, which resulted in him turning the airplane too soon, and subsequently impacting with a tree. Factors in this accident were a loss of electrical power for undetermined reasons, resulting in the pilot not being able to activate the runway lights, and no visual cues due to a dark night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99LA194
- Event ID
- 20001212X19312
- Case number
- MIA99LA194
- 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: 314ba91d44b993292ba42168632d1baac3a82b4667af4fabeea370d6491ce2e5; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:28:50.139Z.