CHI06LA070 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Saginaw County H.W. Browne Airport (HYX) to Clare County Airport (80D)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06LA070
- 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
- 1 · 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 172
- 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
- N8540B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Saginaw County H.W. Browne Airport (HYX), Saginaw, MITo Clare County Airport (80D), Harrison, MI
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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, inadequate
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 contacted trees and the terrain while in the airport traffic pattern. There were no known witnesses to the accident; however, several witnesses reported seeing the airplane flying in the area prior to the accident. One witness reported seeing the airplane touchdown on runway 18 but did not see whether or not it stayed on the ground or if the pilot performed a touch and go. Data downloaded from a hand-help global positioning system foundin the wreckage revealed a track beginning near the pilot's departure airport at 1335. Although there are several heading changes the track continues toward the accident airport. The track showed the airplane continued west until reaching the north end of the runway. The track then turned to the south and followed the length of the runway prior to making a turn to the east. The track then showed the airplane heading north to a point approximately 2.5 statute miles north of the airport. The track then turned to the south, heading back toward the airport. According to the data, the airplane continued on a course which varied between 186 and 175 degrees true. The data also showed the airplane's ground speed decreasing from 99 miles per hour to 51 miles per hour during this period. The last data point showed the airplane on a heading of 157 degrees true with a speed of 56 miles per hour. The airplane came to rest in a wooded area approximately 500 feet east of the runway and approximately 1,000 feet north of the south end of the runway. The airplane contacted trees, which were approximately 40 feet tall, prior to impacting the ground. The airplane impacted the terrain in an approximate 45-degree nose down attitude. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any failure/malfunction of the flight controls or engine which would have resulted in the accident. Toxicological tests detected Chlorpheniramine, Tetrahydrocannabinol (Marijuana), Tetrahydrocannabinol Carboxylic Acid (Marijuana), Phenylpropanolamine, and Psuedoephedrine in blood and tissue samples.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed which resulted in an inadvertent stall. A factor associated with the accident was the pilot's impairment due to drugs.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06LA070
- Event ID
- 20060126X00124
- Case number
- CHI06LA070
- 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: 9dbbe74faca5eacd299bfd556d21a2ed243314ce69d4aa2cbbc6467cb9288197; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:35:26.805Z.