DFW08CA003 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From University Oxford Airport (KUOX) to Hawkins Field (KHKS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW08CA003
- 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
- 0
- 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
- N5260J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From University Oxford Airport (KUOX), Oxford, MSTo Hawkins Field (KHKS), Jackson, MS
- 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 › 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 private pilot lost control of the single-engine airplane during the initial climb after taking off from Runway 09. The pilot, stated on the NTSB Form 6120.1 (Pilot/Operator Accident/Incident Report) that as he initiated the takeoff roll from the 5,600-foot long, by 100-foot wide asphalt runway, the airplane "felt a little wobbly" and seemed "a little slow in accelerating" and he considered aborting the takeoff. The 483-hour pilot, who reported having accumulated 302-hours in this make and model, further stated that he noticed that his indicated airspeed during the initial climb was 45 to 50 knots. The pilot added that the airplane stalled while he initiated a left turn to avoid trees at departure end of the runway. Weight and balance was calculated by the pilot after the flight. He reported that the flight was 132 pounds over the maximum gross weight. The airplane impacted the trees in a nose down attitude and came to rest in the upright position. The airframe sustained structural damage. At 1953, weather reported at the nearest airport 39 miles to the north east, was winds from 120 degrees at 05 knots, 10 miles visibility, clear skies, temperature 28 degrees Celsius, dew point 18 degrees Celsius, and an altimeter setting of 30.02 inches of Mercury.
Probable cause
The pilots inadvertent stall during takeoff. A contributing factor was his failure to calculate the aircraft gross weight prior to the flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW08CA003
- Event ID
- 20071107X01754
- Case number
- DFW08CA003
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2007-10-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 09603b7d444b90f644ee50e8c6062ab51499ffbd856d3248798f10607cd6f373; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:22:37.083Z.