CEN18LA344 · Cessna 172 S
US Sport Aircraft Cessna 172 S · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA344
- 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 S
- 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
- N893JA
- Operator
- US Sport Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 9 years (built 2009)
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- 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 pilot reported that, shortly after departing on a discovery flight, the airplane began veering left. He applied right rudder and aileron; however, the airplane continued to veer left. He recalled hearing the stall warning horn and stated that he lowered the nose and adjusted the trim, but the airplane continued in a nose-down position and impacted the ground. A video of the accident flight showed the airplane in a high- pitch attitude shortly after takeoff, followed by the left wing dropping and a rapid descent, consistent with an aerodynamic stall. Given that the pilot had just taken off, there was insufficient altitude to recover from the stall. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, wings, and empennage. A postaccident examination did not reveal any evidence of a preimpact failure or malfunction that would have precluded normal operation. The examination revealed a flap setting of 30°. Weight and balance calculations determined that the airplane was loaded about 138 lbs over its maximum gross weight, which, in combination with the flap setting during takeoff, would have adversely affected the airplane’s climb rate. In an attempt to maintain a positive rate of climb, the pilot inadvertently exceeded the airplane’s critical angle of attack and aerodynamically stalled the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper flap setting for takeoff and subsequent exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing was the overgross state of the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA344
- Event ID
- 20180820X44833
- Case number
- CEN18LA344
- 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, cause areas. 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: 8276ded4a5917fd4c661b00e20b79d8ed5767a46910dbd5787b19cbf69aad301; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:07:35.854Z.