CEN12CA658 · Cessna 175A
Cessna 175A · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) on approach
From Black Hills Airport-Clyde Ice Field (SPF) to Black Hills Airport-Clyde Ice Field (SPF)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12CA658
- 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 175A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- 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
- N6979E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Black Hills Airport-Clyde Ice Field (SPF), Spearfish, SDTo Black Hills Airport-Clyde Ice Field (SPF), Spearfish, SD
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While attempting to land at a private airstrip, the pilot thought the airplane was too fast and too high on the first approach, and he elected to perform a go-around. During the second approach, the airplane encountered a crosswind, and the pilot aborted the landing. He applied takeoff power, lowered the flaps, pitched for a climb, and gained altitude. While maneuvering, the airplane encountered a downdraft and rising terrain. The airplane did not appear to be outclimbing the rising terrain, so the pilot decided to attempt a landing on the terrain. During the landing, the airplane struck a roadway berm, which separated the landing gear. The airplane came to rest upright; the pilot and passenger exited the airplane and noticed a small fire. The pilot attempted to extinguish the fire, but was unsuccessful, and the airplane was consumed by fire. The pilot reported that the airplane did not experience any mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's delayed decision to abandon the landing attempt, which resulted in the airplane colliding with rising terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12CA658
- Event ID
- 20120926X10723
- Case number
- CEN12CA658
- 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, 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: 69cebd2a04666a2182250acc1d06f23358d89eec2128b331365ae2ce971e1feb; retrieved 2026-09-15T20:02:03.279Z.