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ERA25LA164

2025-04-01 · Hickory, North Carolina, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport HKY

Current FAA registration · N79514

Make / Model
CESSNA 172N
Year of manufacture
1976 · 49 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19761223
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S AACD30

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control during an attempted go-around, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall/spin and collision with terrain.

Factual narrative

After performing 3 takeoffs and landings in the airport traffic pattern with a flight instructor onboard, the student pilot departed on a solo flight. He subsequently performed two more landings, and during the landing flare of the third landing, a gusting crosswind struck the airplane. After touching down, the airplane began to drift to the left, so the pilot elected to abort the landing. After applying full throttle and establishing the airplane in a climb attitude, the pilot described that he, “…was unable to put in the correct level of inputs, triggering a stall left spin, landing nearly nose-down off the runway.” The airplane’s left wing was substantially damaged during the accident sequence. The pilot did not report that there were any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Not attained/maintained

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2025_ERA25LA164.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, go-around). All research papers