CEN17FA095 · Cessna 177
Eagle Sky Patrol Cessna 177 · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Athens Municipal Airport (F44) to Frierson, LA
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17FA095
- 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
- 1 · 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 177
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N2810X
- Operator
- Eagle Sky Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Athens Municipal Airport (F44), Athens, TXTo Frierson, LA
- Aircraft age
- About 50 years (built 1967)
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Tower/antenna (incl guy wires)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- 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
The commercial pilot was conducting an aerial observation flight of pipelines in visual meteorological conditions. According to the operator, the pilot was transitioning the airplane to the east between two pipelines, which were about 112 miles apart. During the flight the airplane's left wing contacted the top guy-wire of a 449-ft tall communications tower. The airplane impacted terrain and a post-impact fire consumed the airplane.
Although the wreckage was significantly fragmented and damaged by fire, examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operations. Separated sections of the left wing were found between the communications tower and main wreckage. Portions of the wing exhibited wire strike markings consistent with the diameter of the tower guy-wire, and white paint marks consistent with the left wing's paint color were found on the top guy-wire about 430 ft above ground level (agl). GPS data indicated that, for the last 10 minutes of flight, the airplane's altitude varied between 219 and 552 ft agl. The last data point showed the airplane at 403 ft. GPS data and wreckage and impact information are consistent with the pilot failing to maintain clearance from the communications tower guy-wire while flying a long-distance transition flight at low altitude.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from a communications tower guy-wire. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's decision to conduct a long distance transition flight at a low altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17FA095
- Event ID
- 20170131X81133
- Case number
- CEN17FA095
- 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: 1ae45d8f48d69b8dcf5fcc3143621ed478f59e0ab945ad7463bc235be72be78c; retrieved 2026-09-15T05:58:20.350Z.