CHI07LA177 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Silvertree Heliport (WI28) to Rush City Regional Airport (KROS)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07LA177
- 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 172M
- 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
- N4422R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Silvertree Heliport (WI28), Rio Creek, WITo Rush City Regional Airport (KROS), Rush City, MN
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft weight and balance, improper
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
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 impacted terrain following a loss of control during initial climb when, according to the pilot, the airplane engine had a total loss of engine power. One witness stated that the airplane stalled while climbing over trees, while another stated that he did not hear the engine stop. The airplane was about 243 pounds over its gross takeoff weight. The pilot stated that he thought he calculated a weight and balance for the flight which he thought were within limits. Examination of the airplane revealed that both propeller blade tips were missing, having fracture surfaces consistent with rotational overload separation. There was also a propeller slash mark that preceded the wreckage, which, in conjunction with the propeller tips separation, is indicative of significant propeller rotation/engine power at impact. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper aircraft weight and balance, and his failure to maintain sufficient airspeed to avoid a stall during takeoff-initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07LA177
- Event ID
- 20070625X00789
- Case number
- CHI07LA177
- 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: aedddfdde54250cee6a8fcdca8b6f5852963a7df4346f9faaf7f11980674ae6a; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:47:31.452Z.