Al Merrill Cessna R172K accident
Cessna R172K · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From IAI · KEAHOLE, HI to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA078
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 R172K
- 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
- N7320K
- Operator
- Al Merrill
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From IAI · KEAHOLE, HITo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Hazardous weather advisory, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN WHILE MANEUVERING TO AVIOD CLOUDS DURING A LOCAL SCENIC FLT. THE PLT STATED THAT TURBULENCE CAUSED LOSS OF CONTROL AND THE ACFT WAS BLOWN INTO TREES. THE WINDS WERE FROM 050 DEGS AT 37 KTS WITH GUSTS TO 45 KTS. SIGMET OSCAR FIVE WAS IN EFFECT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WHICH FORECAST OCCASIONAL SEVERE TURBULENCEBELOW 9000 FT OVER AND IMMEDIATELY SOUTH THROUGH WEST OF ALL MOUNTAINS IN ALL OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA078
- Event ID
- 20010110X00197
- Case number
- LAX86LA078
- 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: 320784fbe217bfaf981c0f5ccfad1b6ad33cec6a754b295635b23a8d89e0b4bd; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:24:00.268Z.