Cessna 172N accident near Charleston, WV
On March 26, 2016, a Cessna 172N (airplane) was involved in an accident near Charleston, WV. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- March 26, 2016
- Place
- Charleston, WV
- Aircraft
- Cessna 172N · Airplane
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 1 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 38.376°N, 81.593°W
- NTSB ID
- 20160326X35043
Official records · ERA16FA141
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn March 26, 2016, about 1208 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172N, N6238D, impacted terrain during an attempted takeoff at Yeager Airport (CRW), Charleston, West Virginia. The flight instructor was fatally injured, and the student pilot was seriously injured. The airplane was registered to Skylane Aviation LLC and the flight was being conducted as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight. Visual meteorological conditions existed at the airport about the time of the accident, and no flight plan had been filed for the local flight. The student pilot stated that the flight instructor let him taxi the airplane out from the fixed-base operator. The student was having difficulty with the brakes, so the instructor took over the controls and taxied the rest of the way to the runway and run-up area. The student pilot stated that he did not remember much after that. However, he did remember that air traffic control told them to expedite the takeoff because another aircraft was coming in for a landing and that the flight instructor then taxied out for takeoff. He recalled that as the airplane rotated during the takeoff, he heard the flight instructor exclaim, but could not recall any subsequent events. Review of airport security surveillance video revealed that the airplane lifted off about 1,000 ft down runway 5, pitched up, rolled left, and then became inverted before it impacted terrain next to the runway in a nose-down attitude. PERSONNEL INFORMATIONFlight Instructor According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, the flight instr
Probable cause
The flight instructor's failure to ensure that her seat was properly secured before initiating the takeoff, which resulted in a subsequent loss of control. Contributing was the lack of an installed secondary seat stop.
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Browse: West Virginia · Cessna aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
