FTW03FA212 · Cessna 172L
Southern Wings Cessna 172L · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From New Braunfels National Airport (BAZ) to Skylark Field (ILE)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03FA212
- 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
- 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 172L
- 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
- N7632G
- Operator
- Southern Wings
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From New Braunfels National Airport (BAZ), New Braunfels, TXTo Skylark Field (ILE), Killeen, TX
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall/spin
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During takeoff, the airplane entered an extremely steep climb, stalled, and impacted the terrain in a nose low, left wing low attitude. According to local authorities, the three occupants of the airplane were on a reported weekend hunting trip the night before the accident flight. Ticket stubs from a bus company indicated the three individuals departed approximately 0300 on a bus and then arrived at a family members residence approximately 0630. After approximately six hours of rest, the 200-hour pilot called the flight school and reserved the airplane for an unplanned flight. Witnesses observed the airplane taxi to runway 17. Runway 35 had been the active runway that was used during an airshow that just ended. During takeoff, the airplane lifted off "into an extremely steep climb," and appearing "kind of tippy." The airplane started a turn to the left, "not very high off the ground with the wings dipping back and forth." One witness stated, "[the] pilot appeared to attempt a recovery, but seemed to overcorrect and pull up too fast." The airplane "pitched downward towards the left and entered a spin towards the right" and impacted the ground. Flight control continuity was established throughout the airplane at the accident site. No mechanical anomalies were noted with the engine or airframe. No radio headsets, charts, flight gear, or logbooks were located within the aircraft wreckage. The airplane was found to be within weight and balance limits.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed sufficient for flight resulting in an inadvertent stall/spin during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03FA212
- Event ID
- 20030911X01518
- Case number
- FTW03FA212
- 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: 5123aa764b02d45a2d8cef92081c0972a7fceac46a998e433f9e1b43fb4783c9; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:58:06.644Z.