LAX87LA083 · Cessna 172K
Cessna 172K · Accident: on ground/water encounter with weather while taxiing
From Lanai Airport (LNY) to Molokai Airport (MKK)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA083
- 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 172K
- 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
- N7459
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lanai Airport (LNY), LANAI, HITo Molokai Airport (MKK), MOLOKAI, HI
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, not performed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Wind information, not obtained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CESSNA 172K NOSED OVER IN STRONG WINDS WHILE TAXIING FOR DEPARTURE ON RWY 3. THE PLT INDICATED THAT HE WAS 'BACK TAXIING' ON RWY 3 WHEN THE WIND 'GOT UNDER WING, THEN UNDER TAIL, AND PLANE TURNED UPSIDE DOWN.' THE PLT ALSO INDICATED THAT THE WINDS WERE FROM 030 DEGREES AT 25 KTS GUSTING TO 30 KTS AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE WINDS WERE REPORTED AT THE MOLOKAI AIRPORT LOCATED 23 NAUTICAL MILES TO THE NNW TO BE FROM 070 DEGREES AT 20 KTS GUSTING TO 25 KTS. THE OPERATORS MANUAL FOR THE CESSNA 172 INDICATES THE PLT SHOULD USE DOWN AILERON ON THE WING INTO THE WIND AND DOWN ELEVATOR WHEN TAXIING WITH QUARTERING TAILWINDS. THE MANUAL ALSO STATES, 'STRONG QUARTERING TAIL WINDS REQUIRE CAUTION. AVOID SUDDEN BURSTS OF THE THROTTLE AND SHARP BRAKING WHEN THE AIRPLANE IS IN THIS ATTITUDE.'
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA083
- Event ID
- 20001213X30102
- Case number
- LAX87LA083
- 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: 1d40893428084b3ca92e1850a71d6fc1199882534fafec382a8752514347d41e; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:37:52.624Z.