Cessna 172 N919YA

Summary

On 9 July 2010 at about 14:20 local time, a Cessna 172 registered N919YA was involved in an accident near Goddard, Kansas, United States. One person was on board and one was seriously injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

9 July 2010 at 14:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Goddard, Kansas, United States

Nearest airport

Dunn Airstrip - Goddard KS (NONE)

Coordinates

37.5875, -97.6022

Aircraft

Cessna 172

Registration

N919YA

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Goddard → Wichita

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN10LA381

1 person was seriously injured.

The pilot did not maintain airspeed during takeoff, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s poor preflight planning.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed from a 2,200-foot grass strip with an 8-knot tailwind. There were 35-foot high power lines at the departure end of the airstrip, the grass was wet, and the first third of the runway sloped uphill. The pilot stated that the airplane became airborne further down the runway than he originally expected. He was concerned that he would not clear the power lines and initially attempted to fly under them; however, when the pilot saw a road grader driving across his flight path, he pitched up, added an additional 10 degrees of flaps, and attempted to fly over the power lines. After clearing the power lines, the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall, descended, and collided with the ground in a nose-low attitude. No preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures were found that would have precluded normal operation. Performance calculations showed the airplane would have required 2,181 feet of runway to clear a 50 foot obstacle for an 8 knot downwind takeoff on a dry grass runway. Because the runway was wet and the first third was uphill, the required distance would have been longer.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.