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MKC87LA173 · Cessna 172M

19 Sept 1987 · Festus, MO, United States

Tak Cessna 172M · Accident: undershoot on approach

From FES · Festus, MO to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
MKC87LA173
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
N13568
Operator
Tak
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From FES · Festus, MOTo not recorded
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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Undershoot
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(cfi) › Altitude, misjudged
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Distance, misjudged
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Go-around, not selected
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE CFI WAS GIVING INST TO A PVT PLT WHO WAS UNDERGOING A BIENNIAL FLT REVIEW. THE PVT PLT CMPLTD THE MANEUVERS AND RET TO THE ARPT. THE LNDG WAS ABORTED AND A GO-AROUND WAS MADE. THE CFI TOOK CONTROL AND EXECUTED ANOTHER APPCH. THE PVT PLT WAS TO MONITOR AN AIRSPD OF 70 MPH RECMND BY THE CFI AS THE APPROPRIATE APPCH SPD. THE CFI INTENDED THE PVT PLT TO FOLLOW THIS LEAD ON THE NEXT LNDG. THE CFI ADJUSTED FLAPS FM 30 TO 40 DEG'S ON SHORT FINAL AND ADDED SOME PWR TO MAINTAIN 70 MPH INDICATED. THE CFI THEN STATED HE ENCOUNTERED WHAT HE PERCEIVED AS WIND SHEAR IN THE VICINITY OF HEAVY WOODS NEAR THE RWY APPROACH. WINDS WERE FM 300 DEG MAG AT 13 KTS CREATING A X-WIND LNDG COMPONENT. THE CFI STATED THAT HE ADDED PWR AND CHGD ACFT PITCH ATTITUDE, TO ARREST THE DESCENT. THE ACFT SUBSEQUENTLY IMPACTED UNEVEN TERRAIN SHORT OF THE RWY. THE TREES HAVE BEEN TARGETED FOR REMVL FOR SOMETIME. LCL PILOTS WERE AWARE OF THE DANGER, BUT WINDESPREAD KNOWLEDGE OF IT IS NOT. THE TREES REMAIN TO THIS DATE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC87LA173
Event ID
20001213X32163
Case number
MKC87LA173
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: 7ba11d171e382c8c2bb63716a7f73e2ef5725bf93ef2ecb1831f44bebd577740; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:44:13.175Z.