CEN16LA338 · Cessna 172 R
Flight Academy of New Orleans Cessna 172 R · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) on approach
From Lakefront Airport (KNEW) to Lakefront Airport (KNEW)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16LA338
- 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
- 2 · 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 R
- 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
- N984RA
- Operator
- Flight Academy of New Orleans
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakefront Airport (KNEW), New Orleans, LATo Lakefront Airport (KNEW), New Orleans, LA
- Aircraft age
- About 19 years (built 1997)
- 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
- 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
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
Shortly after sunset, the pilot with two passengers departed on a local sightseeing flight of the city. The flight flew around the city, then proceeded back to the airport after civil twilight. The final portion of the flight and the landing approach were conducted over a lake. A review of radar's last return revealed the airplane about 0.6 miles from the airport at an altitude of 100 ft agl. The surviving passenger reported everything appeared normal during the flight, and as they neared the airport, it started to rain, and visibility was poor. The pilot pointed out 4 four red lights ahead of the airplane and stated to the passengers that was the airport. The passenger added that she could see out the side window and the airplane was about 4-6 ft above the surface of the lake. Shortly thereafter, the airplane impacted the lake.
Postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. A review of weather information noted the presence of thunderstorm activity and isolated rain showers in the area at the time of the accident.
The pilot's toxicology report was positive for ethanol and clomipramine. Due to a delay in the recovery, it is likely that most, if not all, of the ethanol was from postmortem production. Clomipramine is a tricyclic antidepressant used to treat symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clomipramine is not considered impairing. Additionally, the pilot's actions and communication with the passengers also indicate that the pilot did not experience a seizure or incapacitation, so a reaction to his medication was not likely.
With reduced visibility due to rain and night conditions, it is unlikely the pilot could see the water. The four red lights, consistent with the runway's precision approach path indicator (PAPI) that the pilot pointed out to the passengers, reflected the airplane's low approach path. The accident is consistent with the pilot continuing the descent, while already below a normal approach path to the airport, which resulted in the controlled flight into terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to continue a descent during a night visual approach a for landing which resulted in controlled flight into terrain. Contributing to the accident was the reduced visibility and pilot's disregard of the PAPI indications that the airplane's approach path was excessively low.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16LA338
- Event ID
- 20160829X35843
- Case number
- CEN16LA338
- 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: 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 2016-08-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a8e77dfc06a5aed648f97f8bff814af7b0e9436b8841c2f3b3c397740ecb52ce; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:59:09.471Z.