NYC08FA133 · Cessna 172 S
Kemper Aviation Cessna 172 S · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin while maneuvering
From Okeechobee County Airport (OBE) to Okeechobee County Airport (OBE)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08FA133
- 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
- 4 · 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 S
- 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
- N284SP
- Operator
- Kemper Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Okeechobee County Airport (OBE), Okeechobee, FLTo Okeechobee County Airport (OBE), Okeechobee, 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- Defining eventThe 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
- Aerodynamic 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The purpose of the flight was to conduct aerial surveys of bird activity. During a circling pass, at an altitude about 300 feet above ground level (agl), a witness observed the nose of the airplane drop. The airplane then banked to the right with an accompanying increase in engine noise, and descended into the ground. The airplane had flown approximately 1.5 hours since being serviced with fuel on the morning of the accident flight. The airplane was 5 pounds over maximum gross weight based on the measured weight of the contents. Fuel was observed in the surrounding areas of the accident site, and as such, the maximum gross weight was considered higher than the measured value. Impact damage on the nose, wings, and fuselage were consistent with a stall/spin and subsequent collision with terrain. Postaccident examination revealed that the stall warning device was inoperative at the time of the accident. Two pilots who had previously flown the bird surveying missions, reported that they were instructed by the research leader to fly the airplane at altitudes between 200 and 500 feet agl. They further reported that the type of maneuvers and low airspeeds required to perform the missions would often cause the stall warning horn to sound. Aside from the stall warning horn, no other preimpact mechanical malfunctions were identified with the accident airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed while maneuvering at low altitude. Contributing to the accident was the overweight condition of the airplane and the inoperative stall warning horn.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08FA133
- Event ID
- 20080321X00349
- Case number
- NYC08FA133
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: 3f7bbe96f9859d12ee016deb0f5aa6132cdcb9bc55a7b44af6065db22b367669; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:00:24.821Z.