MIA85FA227 · Cessna 172RG
Lakeland Aviation Cessna 172RG · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL) to George T Lewis Airport (CDK)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA85FA227
- 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
- 2 · 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 172RG
- 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
- N6419R
- Operator
- Lakeland Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL), Lakeland, FLTo George T Lewis Airport (CDK)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE MANAGER OF THE DESTINATION ARPT SAID THE PLT HAD CALLED EARLIER IN THE EVENING & HAD ASKED TO BE PICKED UP AT THE ARPT. THE PLT SAID THAT HE WOULD FLY OVER THE MANAGER'S HOUSE AFTER HE ARRIVED. THE MANAGER HEARD THE ACFT FLY OVER FROM EAST TO WEST. REPORTEDLY, THE ENG WAS RUNNING NORMALLY UNTIL THE ACFT CRASHED IN THE OPEN SEA APRX 1-1/2 MI WEST-SOUTHWEST OF THE ARPT. A SEARCH WAS INITIATED & THE PASSENGER'S BODY WAS FOUND AT ABOUT 0030 EDT. THE PLT'S BODY WAS NOT FOUND UNTIL THE NEXT DAY AT APRX 1330. THE ACFT WAS FOUND & RETRIEVED FROM WHERE IT CRASHED IN ABOUT 15 FT OF SEA WATER. IT WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT. THE ENG HAD SEPARATED FROM THE FIREWALL. THE PROP BLADES WERE TWISTED & BENT IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF ROTATION. THE RIGHT WING WAS STILL ATTACHED TO THE FUSELAGE & THE LEADING EDGE WAS CRUSHED CHORDWISE. THE LEFT WING WAS BROKEN & DISTORTED. TOXICOLOGY CHECKS OF THE PLT'S BLOOD & URINE SHOWED ALCOHOL LEVELS OF 0.157% & 0.188%, RESPECTIVELY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA85FA227
- Event ID
- 20001214X37555
- Case number
- MIA85FA227
- 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 1985-08-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e17e0e6c8237519d62a8a2e0a7abc0b2a64f78747dc6941c04843433ebffed64; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:53:33.731Z.