CHI90LA159 · Cessna 172H
Brookville Airpark Cessna 172H · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Reading Regional Airport (Carl A Spaatz Field) (RDG)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90LA159
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172H
- 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
- N715HR
- Operator
- Brookville Airpark
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Reading Regional Airport (Carl A Spaatz Field) (RDG), Reading, PA
- 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 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER LIFT-OFF THE AIRCRAFT DIPPED, LEFT WING DOWN, AND NOSED INTO THE GROUND IN A NEWLY PLANTED FIELD. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE ATTRIBUTED THE ACCIDENT TO WINDSHEAR, AND INDICATED THAT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN PREVENTED BY CLIMBING OUT AT A HIGHER AIRSPEED. THE WINDS WERE REPORTED TO BE OUT OF THE SOUTH AT 10 KNOTS, WITH GUSTS TO 15 KNOTS; THE DEPARTURE RUNWAY WAS RUNWAY 27. STRONG AND VARIABLE WINDS WERE REPORTED IN THE AREA AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, AND THERE WAS ONE PREVIOUS REPORT OF WINDSHEAR AT THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN POSITIVE CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT WHILE ENCOUNTERING GUSTY, SHIFTY WINDS AND WINDSHEAR DURING THE INITIAL CLIMBOUT AFTER TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90LA159
- Event ID
- 20001212X23367
- Case number
- CHI90LA159
- 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: a1a3dda69ef4b51bd331c11fbefbfc2ca46e7127d54924fd2f1b1cd0115a0b03; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:51:04.674Z.