WPR13LA299 · Cessna 172 - N
Cessna 172 - N · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Trout Lake Airport (66WA) to Trout Lake Airport (66WA)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13LA299
- 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 172 - N
- 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
- N75542
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Trout Lake Airport (66WA), Trout Lake, WATo Trout Lake Airport (66WA), Trout Lake, WA
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1976)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 control on ground
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the engine was developing full power during the attempted soft-field takeoff from the 1,800-foot grass airstrip in calm wind. About halfway down the runway, the airspeed indicator only read about 40 knots. When the airplane was about two-thirds of the way down the runway, the pilot realized that he was committed to take off because insufficient runway was remaining to stop the airplane. After reaching about 45 knots, the airplane's nosewheel lifted off the runway, but it only lifted about 4 feet off the ground. About the same time, the airplane's right wing impacted two 10-foot-tall trees and a barbed wire fence. The airplane subsequently cleared a drainage ditch, the main landing gear impacted a sprinkler pipe, and the airplane skidded on all three main landing gear before coming to rest in an upright position. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and empennage.
A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane was within its weight and balance limits. The pilot reported that he had experience taking off and landing on short and soft fields and that, on the day before the accident, he had practiced short-field takeoffs and landings at another airport; however, he did not indicate if he had practiced soft-field takeoffs and landings at that time. The pilot should have aborted the takeoff when the airplane reached the runway's midpoint at an airspeed of only about 40 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from trees during takeoff from a soft field and to abort the landing when the airplane reached the runway’s midpoint at a low airspeed.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13LA299
- Event ID
- 20130630X44536
- Case number
- WPR13LA299
- 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: 961ec9100a4d978bf9d88f381fe732f0dcdfd8a0a0f3237c02a8085f2c9625a2; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:02:04.363Z.