CEN22FA197 · Cessna 172 N
Cessna 172 N · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN22FA197
- 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
- 0
- 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 N
- 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
- N73670
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 45 years (built 1977)
- 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 pattern final
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Flight track data indicated that the pilot was returning to the departure airport. The pilot had flown to a nearby airport and then performed several flight maneuvers in a nearby practice area. He performed a touch and go landing and then remained in the traffic pattern. The air traffic controller instructed the pilot to widen his downwind leg, due to traffic, and changed the landing runway to the parallel runway. The pilot performed a right turn to the base leg, and after the airplane was established on final, it abruptly turned to the north and descended rapidly. The airplane impacted an intersection about ½ nautical mile (nm) northwest of the approach end of the runway. The airplane impacted the ground and a traffic light pole and came to rest on a sidewalk. A postimpact fire ensued and the airplane was destroyed. Two witnesses reported that the airplane was not in an aerodynamic stall or spin. One witness reported that the airplane appeared to be in a “gentle” left-hand turn and descent, with about 15-20° of bank. They did not observe any flight control movements, nor was there any smoke or fire from the airplane. There were no abnormal engine noises, and the airplane was structurally intact while in flight. A review of local area security camera footage showed the airplane established on final approach. The airplane then turned abruptly to the north and descended rapidly before it impacted the ground. Postaccident examination revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. A review of meteorological data showed that low-level windshear was possible. Additionally, the estimated density altitude at the airport was 8,578 ft above msl at the time of the accident. However, based on the witness statements and the security camera footage, neither windshear nor the high density altitude appeared to play a role in the airplane’s sudden departure from the approach path. The reasons for the loss of control in flight could not be determined.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN22FA197
- Event ID
- 20220511105067
- Case number
- CEN22FA197
- 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, 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: c4b9d976c54d130b6ba00c17df777318281aa593f3f88dc216beab62b47b56ab; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:44:12.549Z.