ATL82FLA03 · Cessna 172M
Maxwell Ford Tractor Cessna 172M · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Valdosta, GA to Valdosta, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82FLA03
- 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 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
- N13687
- Operator
- Maxwell Ford Tractor
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Valdosta, GATo Valdosta, GA
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Clearance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Low pass, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS BEING OPERATED ON A BUSINESS FLIGHT FOR THE PURPOSE OF SURVEYING FARM CROPS IN THE AREA. AT ABOUT 1700 EDT, IT CRASHED INTO A 20 ACRE FARM LAKE WHILE ON A WESTERLY HEADING. THE WEATHER WAS REPORTED AS CLEAR, VISIBILITY 6 TO 7 MILES WITH HAZE, TEMPERATURE 90 DEGREES, AND THE WIND WAS CALM. REPORTEDLY, THE LAKE HAD A GLASSY SURFACE. THERE WERE 3 WITNESSES THAT WERE FISHING FROM A BOAT NEAR THE CENTER OF THE LAKE. THEY REPORTED THAT THE AIRCRAFT PASSED ALONG THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE LAKE ON AN EASTERLY HEADING, CIRCLED AND DESCENDED NEAR THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE LAKE, THEN CAME OUT OF THE TURN AND HEADED TOWARD THEIR BOAT. WITNESSES ESTIMATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT FLEW 10 TO 30 FEET OVER THE BOAT, THEN STRUCK THE WATER WITH NO CHANGE IN ENGINE SOUND. DIVERS FOUND NO BODIES IN THE COCKPIT, THE SEAT BELT AND SHOULDER HARNESS WERE FOUND HANGING LOOSE WITH NO DAMAGE AND NO EVIDENCE OF BEING LATCHED DURING IMPACT. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE AND AIRCRAFT REVEALED NO PREIMPACT FAILURES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82FLA03
- Event ID
- 20020917X02880
- Case number
- ATL82FLA03
- 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: 6f38a384e472005f596d5ba79e450971963e2575dbce5d430f7501bb622377bd; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:16:32.243Z.