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MIA06LA091 · Cessna 172R

16 Apr 2006 · Fort Myers, FL, United States

Cessna 172R · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb

From Page Field (FMY) to Page Field (FMY)

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Event

NTSB case
MIA06LA091
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 172R

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
N417FR
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Page Field (FMY), Fort Myers, FLTo Page Field (FMY), Fort Myers, 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
Initial climb
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
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command(cfi) › 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 the initial takeoff climb on the instructional flight, the airplane's pitch attitude began to increase. A constant forward pressure was necessary on the yoke to maintain control, and the use of nose down trim did not rectify the problem. The necessary forward pressure on the yoke increased. After declaring an emergency, the flight instructor made a 180-degree turn in an attempt to land back on the runway. Witnesses observed the airplane reverse course and then as it was flying over the runway, turn sharply left, enter a nose down attitude, and impact the ground. Post-accident examination of the airplane's flight control system did not reveal any anomalies. The reason for the excessive forward pressure on the yoke required to maintain control was not determined.

Probable cause

The flight instructor's failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering, which resulted in an inadvertent stall. Contributing to the accident was a malfunction of the elevator control for an undetermined reason, which required excessive forward pressure on the yoke to maintain pitch control.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA06LA091
Event ID
20060504X00508
Case number
MIA06LA091
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: 2e1de62e06a0928753c1aef367f95116dff3e65710ca30f67b40642f85ac6879; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:59:05.361Z.