CHI03LA280 · Cessna 172P
Cessna 172P · Accident: propeller blast or jet exhaust/suction while taxiing
From Wellington Municipal Airport (EGT) to Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03LA280
- 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 172P
- 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
- N55326
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wellington Municipal Airport (EGT), Wellington, KSTo Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT), Wichita, KS
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Propeller blast or jet exhaust/suction
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Clearance, not obtained
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 was substantially damaged during an encounter with jet blast while taxing to the ramp after landing. The student pilot reported that she had landed and was instructed by the tower controller to exit at a specific taxiway and taxi to parking. The pilot stated there was a Challenger jet aircraft parked on an intersecting taxiway which the assigned taxi route required her to pass behind. The pilot reported that as she taxied behind the Challenger, her aircraft "started vibrating beyond control, moved around on the taxi way and [she] was unable to continue taxiing." The pilot stated that in the process, the right wing and propeller hit the pavement. Radio conversations between the control tower and the aircraft revealed that the Challenger requested a taxi clearance to perform "maintenance runs." The Challenger crew consisted of mechanics who were conducting a run-up to verify proper engine operation. They reported they were positioned on a crossing taxiway, 40 - 60 feet from the intersection at which the accident occurred. After the accident, the Challenger crew stated that they were operating above idle. The tower reportedly did not question them about their proximity to the crossing taxiway. At the time of the accident, an airport operating instruction concerning aircraft engine testing and run-up was in effect. It stated that aircraft "shall be positioned so as to provide the least amount of interference with other taxiing aircraft, and where jet or propeller blast will not affect parked or taxiing aircraft." The Challenger aircraft operating manual specifies hazard areas regarding engine exhaust. At idle thrust, the exhaust stream hazard area extends to approximately 85 feet behind the engine. At a distance of 40 feet, the exhaust stream speed is 34 miles per hour. At maximum thrust, the hazard area exceeds 170 feet. Exhaust stream velocity is 272 miles per hour approximately 38 feet behind the engine and is 136 miles per hour at a distance of approximately 58 feet. An individual of the maintenance facility stated that the company did not have a formal training procedure for mechanics regarding aircraft ground operations and jet blast hazards.
Probable cause
Failure of the maintenance crew to provide adequate clearance to an active taxiway during the engine run-up. Contributing factors were the failure of the control tower to provide a wake turbulence advisory to the accident aircraft when assigning a taxi route crossing immediately behind the maintenance aircraft, and the failure of the maintenance facility to have a formalized training procedure regarding aircraft ground operations and jet blast hazards for company mechanics.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03LA280
- Event ID
- 20030923X01577
- Case number
- CHI03LA280
- 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: d2a2707c76d6d1cd858dae399272eb3d95365f9d4dd45a93b850886171274d1e; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:39:59.124Z.