GAA17CA268 · Cessna 172 P
Lani Lea Sky Tours Cessna 172 P · Accident: abnormal runway contact during takeoff
From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL) to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA268
- 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 P
- 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
- N173LL
- Operator
- Lani Lea Sky Tours
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL), Honolulu, HITo Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL), Honolulu, HI
- Aircraft age
- About 35 years (built 1982)
- 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 · rejected 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
- Abnormal runway contact
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot reported that she was practicing touch-and-go landings on an asphalt runway. She initiated an approach and bounced the landing and then she initiated a go-around. She was airborne when she pushed the carb heat in and applied full throttle "but mistakenly put flaps up, all at once." The airplane descended to the runway and landed hard. During the landing roll, she pulled the throttle back to idle, gained her bearings, and then initiated a takeoff. She noticed a binding and restriction in the elevator and yoke control movements while remaining in the airport's pattern. She declared an emergency and landed the airplane on the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the elevator control column.
The manufacturer's Pilot's Operating Handbook identified the Balked Landing procedure as:
1. Throttle – Full Open
2. Carburetor Heat – Cold
3. Wing Flaps –20° (Immediately)
4. Climb Speed – 55 KIAS
5. Wing Flaps – 10° (Until obstacles are cleared) Retract (After reaching a safe altitude and 60 KIAS)
The student reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s incorrect flap configuration during the go-around, which resulted in a hard, forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA268
- Event ID
- 20170505X12002
- Case number
- GAA17CA268
- 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: ff0f13d79c3106f7c53c56116d1a026184ea8106e511dadb9604f3377e4444d3; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:14:31.435Z.