Cessna 172P N99173

Summary

On 16 October 2005 at about 17:25 local time, a Cessna 172P registered N99173, operated by Ari Ben Aviator, was involved in an accident near La Belle, Florida, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

16 October 2005 at 17:25

Classification

Accident

Location

La Belle, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

La Belle Municipal (X14)

Coordinates

26.7442, -81.4331

Aircraft

Cessna 172P

Registration

N99173

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Ari Ben Aviator

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Fort Pierce → La Belle

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

MIA06FA007

1 person died.

The student pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during the initial takeoff climb, resulting in an inadvertent stall/spin and uncontrolled descent to ground impact. A contributing factor was the failure of the wing flap control, which resulted in the flaps being stuck in the full down position.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The student pilot was making a solo cross country flight. Witnesses observed the airplane on the initial takeoff climb after a touch and go landing. One witness reported that from an estimated altitude of 150 feet, the airplane stalled, drifted to the left, and impacted the ground. Another witness reported that when he initially saw the airplane, it was at an altitude of about 350 feet and appeared normal. He diverted his attention momentarily, looked back and saw the airplane in a nose-low attitude. The airplane completed 3 to 3.5 turns of a spin before he lost sight of it. Examination of the accident site revealed that the airplane impacted the ground in a near vertical attitude. The wing flaps were found extended to the full down or 30 degree position. Examination of the flap selector/indicator assembly revealed impact marks indicating that the flap selector handle was positioned at about the 10 degree position and the flap indicator position was near 30 degrees. The student pilot's flight instructor reported that five days before the accident, he had encountered a discrepancy with the airplane where the flaps would not retract from a 20 degree down position. The flight instructor stated that he "moved the flap lever to retract the flaps, and the flaps and the flaps position indicator did not move." He further stated that he "reset the flap lever to the original position and tired again. This time the flaps and flaps position indicator moved normally." The flight instructor did not report the discrepancy to maintenance personnel. The airplane was flown 10 times between this flight and the accident flight with no reported duplications of this discrepancy.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.