NYC05LA106 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM) to Katama Airpark (1B2)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC05LA106
- 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 172N
- 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
- N5118D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM), Plymouth, MATo Katama Airpark (1B2), Edgartown, MA
- 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
- 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
- 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 › 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
[ THIS REPORT WAS MODIFIED ON JUNE 10, 2008 ]
The pilot of a red Waco biplane was back-taxiing on runway 3, a 3,700-foot-long, 50-foot-wide, turf runway. At the same time, a group of airplanes were approaching the airport as part of a pre-arranged Deaf Pilots Association fly-in. The pilot of the Waco stated that prior to the back-taxi he announced his intentions on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF), did not hear a response, and did not observe any traffic in the area. About one-third down the runway, the pilot of the Waco observed an airplane on final approach for runway 3. The pilot of the Waco attempted to contact the airplane on final approach, but heard no response. The pilot of the Waco then taxied off the runway and waited until the landing airplane rolled past him. The pilot of the Waco announced his intentions on the CTAF, heard no response, and resumed the back-taxi on runway 3. About two-thirds down the runway, he observed another airplane approaching runway 6, and he again cleared runway 3 in case the landing pilot decided to land on runway 3. The second airplane subsequently landed on runway 6. The pilot of the Waco attempted to contact both pilots that landed, but heard no response. The pilot of the Waco again announced his intentions on the CTAF, heard no response, and resumed the back-taxi on runway 3. As the Waco approached the runway threshold, the accident airplane was on short final approach for runway 3, and began a go-around. During the go-around, the nose pitched up, the airplane stalled to the left, and impacted the runway. A passenger in the accident airplane reported that the accident airplane and Waco were nose to nose near the runway threshold. Another passenger in the accident airplane reported that the accident pilot panicked at the sight of the Waco. The pilot of the accident airplane was hearing impaired, and could not hear the stall warning horn.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during a go-around, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and subsequent impact with terrain.
[THIS REPORT WAS MODIFIED ON JUNE 10, 2008]
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC05LA106
- Event ID
- 20050630X00898
- Case number
- NYC05LA106
- 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: 50a5ff53a6999646ec19354a3c7ed2f6d7bc88637a99c795d8af10dbc390124a; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:06:05.795Z.