Individually Owned: 151,845
Corporate Owned: 143,699
La Belle Municipal Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
La Belle, Florida 33935
Sunday, October 16, 2005 13:25 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
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.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
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.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 10/16/2005 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 1325 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | La Belle |
| Event State | FLORIDA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 33935 |
| Event Date Year | 2005 |
| Event Date Month | 10 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 264439N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0812559W |
| Event Location Airport | La Belle Municipal |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | X14 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 1 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 18 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1253 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 225 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | KRSW |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 30 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 22 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 30 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 14 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Variable |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 6 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.91 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | 1 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 22321 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA Comm Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | Oct 16 2005 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Sep 27 2007 11:30AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\johb |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N99173 |
| NTSB Number | MIA06FA007 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | 172P |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 17276415 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 2400 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 4 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | Sep 1 2005 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 66 |
| Airframe Hours | 9713 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | -- |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Christiansen Aviation Inc. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 1812 Marsh Rd. Ste 6 PMB 202 |
| Aircraft Owner City | Wilmington |
| Aircraft Owner State | DE |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 19810 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | Ari Ben Aviator |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | 3800 St. Lucie Boulevard |
| Operator City | Fort Pierce |
| Operator State | FL |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 34946 |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Instructional |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | KFPR |
| Departure City | Fort Pierce |
| Departure State | FL |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1227 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | X14 |
| Destination City | La Belle |
| Destination State | FL |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Takeoff - initial climb |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Sep 18 2007 12:23PM |
| User who most recently changed record | KENJ |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 32 |
| Runway Length | 3410 |
| Runway Width | 50 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |