- Date
- March 3, 2025, 17:10 local (22:10 UTC)
- Place
- Knoxville, TN · On Airport
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Taxi
- Aircraft
- N35411Cessna 172I
- Defining event
- Taxi-to runway: Ground collision
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA / FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250303001289A
- Case key
- 199817
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from a truck while taxiing.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
While taxiing out for a solo flight, the student pilot misjudged his wingtip clearance with a parked truck. The airplane initially made contact with the outboard 2 ft of the right wing, then pivoted about 90° to the right while tipping to the left and contacting the ground with the propeller and left wingtip before coming to rest. The student pilot was not injured, but the airplane was substantially damaged. According to the student pilot, he was taxiing at 10 to 15 mph, when the right wing impacted the truck. He stated that “It was completely an act of my misjudgment” and that next time, he would not only proceed with more space than necessary, but he would use the most extreme caution “slowing down to a snail’s pace.”
Aircraft
- Registration
- N35411
- Reported as
- Cessna 172I
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17256755
- Built
- 1968
- Airframe hours
- 9,416.2
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-E2D, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- East Tennessee Pilots Club Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal; Standard, Utility
- Last inspection
- Annual · September 21, 2024
- Departed
- TN98 · Knoxville, TN
- Destination
- TN98 · Knoxville, TN
- Airport
- TN98 · Sky Ranch, runway 01/19, 2,100 × 150 ft, grass/turf
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 18
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 2, With waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 13.4 total · 13.4 in this make and model · 1.1 as pilot in command · 13.4 in the last 90 days · 0.7 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 280° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 55 °F, dew point 10 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.19 inHg
- Observed at
- KTYS, 4 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KTYS 031853Z 28007KT 10SM FEW250 13/M12 A3019 RMK AO2 SLP226 T01281117=
Docket · 5
The files NTSB released with the investigation on July 17, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 24.4 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.