ERA26LA062 · Cessna 172 M
Owens Flight Training Cessna 172 M · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA26LA062
- 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
- 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
- Instrument 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
- N6542H
- Operator
- Owens Flight Training
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT), Lafayette, LA
- Aircraft age
- About 50 years (built 1975)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was departing on a night instrument flight rules (IFR) cross country flight, back to the airport where the airplane was based. He rotated at 55 knots and when he “started to pull back at 100 ft felt an aggressive yaw to the left.” He applied right rudder, but was unable to correct for the yaw, and the airplane impacted trees to the left of the runway resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage, empennage, and both wings. The pilot stated that before departure he requested the fixed base operator (FBO) add fuel to bring the total onboard to 32 gallons; however, a review of fuel records showed the airplane was fueled with 27.7 gallons of 100LL aviation fuel which filled the wing fuel tanks completely. The airplane had a total fuel capacity of 42 gallons with 38 gallons usable. With the wing fuel tanks full, the pilot, and 3 passengers, the airplane would be overweight, so the pilot decided to drain some fuel. He reported draining 4 gallons of fuel which would bring the total usable fuel to 34 gallons. He then called clearance delivery to obtain his IFR clearance and advised them he would need 30 minutes on the ground to burn more fuel. He subsequently shut the airplane down and measured the amount of fuel using a dipstick, which showed 32 gallons. He then completed another external preflight using the airplane checklist, restarted the airplane, and requested taxi instructions. A review of air traffic control communications showed that 17 minutes had elapsed from the time the pilot called for his IFR clearance to when he requested taxi instructions. The pilot provided a copy of the airplane weight and balance which showed the total amount of fuel onboard of 30 gallons. Based on the received weight and balance information and the unclear amount of fuel onboard, it is likely that the airplane was at or above its maximum takeoff weight. A postaccident examination of the airframe revealed no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The aggressive left yaw the pilot experienced was likely a result of the airplane entering an aerodynamic stall.
Probable cause
The pilot’s exceedance of the critical angle of attack during initial climb which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA26LA062
- Event ID
- 20251208202124
- Case number
- ERA26LA062
- 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: bacdce0753bf15a1848b21b8d78aa09b9d53509bf4e43f1b09a48d774bf4130a; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:35:36.581Z.