ATL89FA182 · Cessna 172G
Gordon Air Services Cessna 172G · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From 3J1 to Miami Executive Airport (TMB)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA182
- 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
- 3 · 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 172G
- 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
- N4254L
- Operator
- Gordon Air Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3J1To Miami Executive Airport (TMB), Miami, FL
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
TWO PLTS WERE SEATED AT THE CONTROLS. THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT PLT HAD RENTED THE ACFT; HE HAD 59 HRS TOTAL FLT TIME, OF WHICH, 3 HRS WAS IN THE CESSNA 172. THE LEFT FRONT SEAT PLT (NORMAL PSN FOR THE PIC) HAD 120 HRS OF FLT TIME, OF WHICH, 52 HRS WAS IN THE CESSNA 172. BEFORE RENTING THE ACFT, THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT PLT WAS TOLD OF THE ACFT'S LIMITED PAYLOAD & RWY LENGTH REQUIREMENTS DUE TO THE AUXILIARY FUEL CAPACITY. THE ACFT HAD BEEN REFUELED TO ITS CAPACITY AT THE EN ROUTE ARPT. DURING TAKEOFF FROM THE 3100 FT RWY, THE ACFT LIFTED OFF, SETTLED BACK ONTO RWY & LIFTED OFF AGAIN. THE ACFT CLIMBED WITH A STEEP NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE TO ABOUT 200 TO 250 FT, THEN IT ENTERED A STEEP DSCNT & CRASHED. THE WIND WAS RPRTD TO BE ALIGNED WITH THE RWY AT 10 KTS & THE TEMP WAS ABOUT 90 DEG. THE ACFT WAS ESTD TO HAVE BEEN LOADED ABOUT 120 LBS OVER ITS MAX WT LIMIT. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT WAS FOUND. DENSITY ALT WAS APRX 2100 FT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND (PIC), WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL DURING TAKEOFF. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE EXCESSIVE GROSS WEIGHT AND IMPROPER LIFT-OFF BY THE PIC, THE PILOT/PASSENGER'S IMPROPER CREW COORDINATION REGARDING THE SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS THAT HE RECEIVED CONCERNING THE PAYLOAD LIMITATIONS, AND THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA182
- Event ID
- 20001213X28718
- Case number
- ATL89FA182
- 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: 1f6d9920a4b93ece41c1a1df68881c7cf0fa14034bee6dd01aedc713b7df196d; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:13:47.095Z.