- Date
- May 14, 1989, 14:05 local (21:05 UTC)
- Place
- Young, AZ
- Injuries
- 2 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N88778Cessna R172E
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 22, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890514011429A
- Case key
- 26407
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 pilots decision to land at the restricted airport which had a tree located 20 feet from the centerline of the runway and his failure to maintain proper alignment with the centerline once he made the decision to land there.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
On short final the acft drifted off centerline alignment. The plt attempted to correct for the drift, however, the acft continued to drift and collided with a tree near the edge of the rwy. The plt subsequently lost control of the acft and it collided with the terrain. The airstrip is a restricted dirt strip which is aprx 32 ft wide. The plt reported that the tree was 20 ft from the centerline of the airstrip.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N88778
- Reported as
- Cessna R172E
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- R172-0128
- Airframe hours
- 3,024
- Engine
- Continental IO-360-D, 210 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Rudolph Hillig
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · September 7, 1988 · 67 hours before
- Departed
- DVT · Phoenix, AZ
- Airport
- Pleasant Valley, runway 27, 3,900 × 32 ft, dirt
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
- 37
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 218 total · 134 in this make and model · 129 as pilot in command · 22 in the last 90 days · 2 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 240° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 30 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 81 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.