Cessna 172N N737NH

Summary

On 14 September 1998 at about 14:20 local time, a Cessna 172N registered N737NH was involved in an accident near Montezuma Crk, Utah, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

14 September 1998 at 14:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Montezuma Crk, Utah, United States

Coordinates

37.2096, -109.1901

Aircraft

Cessna 172N

Registration

N737NH

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Other Work Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Farmington → Kingman

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

FTW98FA399

1 person died.

The pilot's attempted aerobatic maneuver and the subsequent inadvertent stall/spin. A factor was his intentional low altitude flight.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane was on a cross-country pipeline inspection flight which required the pilot to fly at a altitude 100 to 150 feet agl. The airplane was observed to start climbing to near vertical with a left turn and then went over the top, spinning to the ground. One witness reported seeing the airplane many times before, and she had observed it flying 90 degree knife edges and performing vertical pop-up turns. No preimpact engine or airframe anomalies, which might have affected the airplane's performance, were identified.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.