FTW86LA036 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW86LA036
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172N
- 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
- N738DC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Dual student › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Inadequate training
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT WAS RECEIVING DUAL INSTRUMENT FLT INSTRUCTION. SHE HAD CONDUCTED SEVERAL PRACTICE INSTRUMENT APCHS, ALL IN VMC CONDITIONS. THE LAST WAS AN ILS TO RWY 13 AT CORPUS CHRISTI INT'L ARPT. IT STARTED IN VMC CONDITIONS BUT ENTERED CLOUDS AT ABOUT 550 FT. THE DESCENT CONTINUED TO ABOUT 300 FT AT WHICH TIME THE CFI CALLED A MISSED APCH. THE CFI STARTED A CLIMB TO ABOUT 350 FT AND HE FELT GROUND IMPACT. BEFORE IMPACT HE NOTED THE ACFT WAS IN A 20 DEG RIGHT BANK AND HE LEVELED THE WINGS. THE STUDENT STATED SHE WAS IN A STATE OF FATIGUE WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. SHE HAD BEEN USING THE AIRSPEED AND VERTICAL SPPED INDICATORS TO VERIFY THE ACFT WAS CLIMBING. SHE MADE NO REFERENCE TO THE ATTITUDE INDICATOR FOR PITCH CONTROL. THE CFI STATED HE SPENT 3 OR 4 HRS WITH THE STUDENT DOING BASIC AIRWORK. THE CFI HAD RENEWED HIS CFI CERTIFICATE 3 DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT BY ATTENDING A FAA APPROVED GROUND TRAINING COURSE. THERE WAS NO FLT CHECK INVOLVED IN THE CERTIFICATE RENEWAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW86LA036
- Event ID
- 20010110X00171
- Case number
- FTW86LA036
- 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 1986-01-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d0cf8d28256de5a84931d69d28485f719b940db4b276163ba973a751002c6fc0; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:33:23.217Z.