MIA03LA070 · Cessna 172RG
Cessna 172RG · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB) to Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA03LA070
- 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 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
- N5177R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB), Sanford, FLTo Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB), Sanford, FL
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Sabotage
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before the flight departed, hydraulic fluid was added to the landing gear hydraulic system. The certified flight instructor (CFI) reported that after takeoff the landing gear retracted without incident. The flight proceeded to the practice area where airwork was performed. The flight continued and when the landing gear was extended prior to performing additional airwork, it failed to extend. The emergency checklist was followed but failed to extend the landing gear. The flight returned to the departure airport and the flight crew contacted dispatch in an attempt to lower the landing gear which was unsuccessful. Additionally, the CFI attempted to manually extend the main landing gear but was unable. The flight returned for landing and with the nose landing gear extended and the main landing gear in trail, the main landing gear collapsed at touchdown. Examination of the airplane by an FAA Airworthiness inspector revealed the hand pump suction line assembly part number 2480001-23, was damaged. Hydraulic fluid covered the area. The line was retained for further examination. The damaged line was examined by the NTSB Materials Laboratory. Examination of the line revealed at least 8 transverse cuts in the tube section of the line adjacent to the end ferrule. A cut directly adjacent to the end ferrule penetrated the wall thickness and was slightly less than .03 inch wide. The sides of that cut were straight into the tube but the bottom of the cut had a curved surface progressing to a sharp bottom. The other cuts did not penetrate the wall thickness, and loss of metal at the cut locations appeared to be primarily from metal flow as opposed to being from grinding or cutting away material. There was no evidence that the edges of the ferrule or B-nut created the cuts in the tubing.
Probable cause
The intentional cutting of the hydraulic line by an unknown person resulting in the loss of hydraulic fluid and the inability of the pilot-in-command to extend and lock the main landing gear, and subsequent collapse of the main landing gear after touchdown.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA03LA070
- Event ID
- 20030307X00299
- Case number
- MIA03LA070
- 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: c7fef8597fd51651983cabb858af6f37d982e2907968b0cb1c34e4e21abd0df8; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:32:03.205Z.