ERA19TA146 · Cessna 172 M
Pilot Training Center Cessna 172 M · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
From Miami Executive Airport (TMB) to Page Field (FMY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19TA146
- 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
- N4335R
- Operator
- Pilot Training Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami Executive Airport (TMB), Miami, FLTo Page Field (FMY), Fort Myers, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 45 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
- Taxi
- 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
- Ground collision
- 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
- Pole
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to a lineperson at the airport, the airplane was taxiing toward four fuel trucks to park. The lineperson then exited one of the trucks with wands, got the pilot's attention, and walked north away from the trucks to direct the pilot to a safer parking area. He then signaled for the pilot to taxi toward him, but the airplane continued north-northwest toward the trucks, and the engine revved to a high rpm. The lineperson then motioned for the airplane to slow and move away from the trucks; however, the airplane continued to taxi toward the trucks. The lineperson signaled stop and yelled "stop" several times. The airplane did not stop, and its left wing struck a light pole near one of the trucks. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. Although the pilot stated that while parking on the ramp parking area, a lineperson provided directions to taxi, which led the airplane's left wing to collide with a light pole, the airport director of operations reported that the pilot could not recall any of the wand signals that he was provided.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to remain clear of a light pole while taxiing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19TA146
- Event ID
- 20190331X75451
- Case number
- ERA19TA146
- 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: d92352bc588d1e9dc2e2b2519923b246ffe2f3102324f35e91b466cab1ff54a4; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:42:15.723Z.