ERA10LA377 · Cessna 172N
Apollo Aviation Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of lift during initial climb
From Eagle's Nest Airport (W13) to Boggs Field (USW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10LA377
- 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 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
- N3480E
- Operator
- Apollo Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eagle's Nest Airport (W13), Waynesboro, VATo Boggs Field (USW), Spencer, WV
- 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
- 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
- Loss of lift
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that prior to departure he calculated the weight, balance, and density altitude for his departure airport. Using the reported temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, he determined the takeoff roll would be 1,500 feet by referencing the airplane's Pilot Operating Handbook (POH). The departure runway was annotated in the airport directory as being 2,009 feet long and in poor condition. The pilot planned to use the grass overrun area of the runway to extend the departure roll by about 400 feet.
The pilot completed an engine run-up and noted no anomalies. He extended the flaps to 10 degrees for a short-field takeoff and taxied into position for takeoff. With the brakes set, he increased the throttle to full power and leaned the mixture in an effort to gain better performance. When the tachometer indicated 2,400 rpm, he released the brakes and started the takeoff roll. Initial acceleration was slow, but once the airplane reached the paved runway the airplane accelerated normally. The airplane lifted off the runway and remained in ground effect. The pilot turned to the left to avoid trees, flew under power lines, and made a forced landing to a field where the airplane collided with a fence.
The airport manager, who observed the takeoff, stated that the pilot forced the airplane into the air, and it wallowed left to right barely flying. He opined that the airplane never flew out of ground effect.
According to the POH, "...normal and short field takeoffs are performed with flaps up. Use of 10 degree flaps is reserved for takeoff from soft or rough fields. Use of 10 degree flaps allows safe use of approximately 5 KIAS lower takeoff speeds than with flaps up. The lower speeds result in shortening takeoff distances up to approximately 10 percent. However, this advantage is lost if flaps up speeds are used, or in high altitude takeoffs at maximum weight where climb performance would be marginal with 10 degree flaps. Therefore, use of 10 degree flaps is not recommended for takeoff over an obstacle at high altitude in hot weather..."
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to follow the short-field takeoff procedures published in the Pilot's Operating Handbook.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10LA377
- Event ID
- 20100727X15215
- Case number
- ERA10LA377
- 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: 86bc6f8c4f3fc3326902f7834226bcffcdc12438641216fc52e90838185e1152; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:45:47.039Z.