GAA17CA318 · Cessna 172 M
Classic Air Aviation Cessna 172 M · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin on approach
From Falcon Field (FFZ) to Payson Airport (PAN)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA318
- 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 M
- 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
- N50526
- Operator
- Classic Air Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa, AZTo Payson Airport (PAN), Payson, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 43 years (built 1974)
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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 › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during an approach to runway 22, the airplane drifted to the right of the runway centerline. He initiated a go-around by turning off the carburetor heat, applying full throttle, decreasing the flaps from 30° to 20°, and pushing forward on the yoke to increase airspeed; the airplane then began to settle into ground effect. The pilot saw that the terrain began to rise, and he recalled that the noise abatement procedure called for a right turn to 270°, so he turned to the right before establishing a climb. The airplane descended into rising terrain, struck trees, and impacted the ground and became engulfed in flames. The postcrash fire destroyed the fuselage.
The METAR reported that the wind was variable at 4 knots and that the temperature was 84°F. The field elevation was 5,504 ft, and the altimeter setting was 30.14 inches of mercury. The density altitude was 8,255 ft.
Per the National Transportation Safety Board Pilot Aircraft Accident Report, the pilot reported that the accident could have been prevented by reviewing the airplane's performance data and atmospheric conditions, especially density altitude and its effect on performance per the manufacturer's Pilot's Operating Handbook. The pilot stated that he would place greater emphasis on performance planning as an essential activity during flight planning.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inadequate preflight planning that did not account for high-density altitude conditions and his subsequent attempted go-around in conditions that prevented the airplane from attaining a positive climb rate and resulted in its subsequent descent and impact with rising terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA318
- Event ID
- 20170604X43047
- Case number
- GAA17CA318
- 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: fac4401dd5a7277a964a6ac4fda9c795b921093681643f94cbef560e8d7ddb66; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:21:53.518Z.