FTW90LA158 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From 87F to Eufaula, OK (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90LA158
- 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 172M
- 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
- N73571
- Operator
- Proflight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 87FTo Eufaula, OK (no airport)
- 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 · roll/run
- 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 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
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE DRIFTED LEFT OFF THE SOD RUNWAY DURING A DUSK TAKEOFF. THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR AND THE RIGHT HORIZONTAL STABILIZER STRUCK A METAL RUNWAY EDGE MARKER DURING LIFT OFF. THE AIRCRAFT THEN TRAVELLED ABOUT 150 FEET AND STRUCK A TREE AT ABOUT 20 FOOT LEVEL WHICH WAS LEFT OF THE RUNWAY BOUNDARY. UPON STRIKING THE TREE, THE AIRPLANE SPUN AROUND AND IMPACTED NOSE DOWN. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE LIFTED THE NOSE GEAR OFF AFTER ABOUT A 500 FOOT GROUND ROLL AND WITNESSES STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE APPEARED TO BE OVER ROTATED. THE RUNWAY WAS 1,225 BY 60 WITH GRASS LENGTH VARYING FROM 6 TO 14 INCHES. PERFORMANCE DATA INDICATED THAT THE AIRPLANE REQUIRED 830 FEET FOR TAKEOFF AND 1,325 FEET TO CLEAR A 50 FOOT OBSTACLE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING THE TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90LA158
- Event ID
- 20001212X24014
- Case number
- FTW90LA158
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-08-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 691df07464337c9a4e7431c13437be351db229af998990cba6bd4ac4c1c40942; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:45:37.617Z.