CHI02LA295 · Cessna 172R
Cessna 172R · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Waukegan National Airport (UGN) to Waukegan National Airport (UGN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA295
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 172R
- 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
- N3510A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Waukegan National Airport (UGN), Waukegan, ILTo Waukegan National Airport (UGN)
- 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 go-around
- 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 object
- 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, low
- Pilot in command(cfi) › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane collided with corn and the terrain during a simulated forced landing. The CFI reported they were at 4,500 feet mean sea level when a simulated loss of engine power was initiated. He reported that the best glide speed was established and they proceeded to a field that was selected. The CFI reported that at an altitude of about 50 feet above the ground, he instructed the student to go around. He stated that the student hesitated in adding the power, and when he did hear the power increase it did not sound like full power. He continued to state, "I proceeded to say full power and tried to put my hand on the throttle but his hand was still there. I pushed his hand in and then went immediately to reduce the flaps to 20 degrees." He stated he also increased the pitch attitude of the airplane, but by that time they were 10 to 15 feet above the ground. The CFI reported that before a positive rate of climb could be established, the landing gear contacted the corn and the airplane was pulled into the field. The student pilot reported that he hesitated when he was instructed to add full power. Title 14 CFR Part 91.119 - Minimum Safe Altitudes: General states, in part,: Except when necessary for takeoff and landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes: (a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface and (c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
Probable cause
The CFI's poor inflight planning/decision to allow the airplane to get to too low of an altitude to assure a safe recovery from the simulated forced landing. Factors associated with the accident were the student pilot's delay initiating the go around and the corn crop which the airplane contacted.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA295
- Event ID
- 20020927X05230
- Case number
- CHI02LA295
- 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, coordinates. 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: dace28aa4c5e8bfa9a4fbd91e6ea1279438df68abb8de69cd3d1fe5f79183f8d; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:11:29.850Z.