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Atlas / NTSB / MKC88FA042

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MKC88FA042

1988-01-19 PIERCEVILLE, Kansas, United States Airport · GCK Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N611CA

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172N

Year of manufacture

1977 · 11 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19770425

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A7F2A8

Registrant of record

WILLIAMS TODD A

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE ACFT DPTD GARDEN CITY UNDER EXTREMELY POOR WX COND'S. MORE THAN HALF WAY TO DODGE CITY, THE PIC RPTD ENG PBLMS TO KANSAS CITY (ARTCC). VECTORS WERE PROVIDED TO THE DODGE CITY ARPT, BUT THE PIC DID NOT MAINTAIN ASSIGNED HDGS. THE ACFT HEADED BACK TOWARDS GARDEN CITY TO ATTEMPT AN INST APPRCH. RADAR VECTORS WERE PROVIDED FOR THE LOCALIZER APPRCH. RADAR INDICATED THAT THE ACFT DID NOT BECOME STABILIZED ON THE APPRCH. THERE WAS A SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF GRNDSPD AS THE PLT WAS ATTMPTNG TO GET ESTABLISHED ON THE LOCALIZER. RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST ABT 2 MI FM THE ARPT AT A SPD APPRCHNG STALL SPD FOR THIS ACFT. THE ACFT CRASHED ABT 2 MI SHORT AND TO THE RT OF COURSE. THE ACFT IMPACTED IN A VERTICAL NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE ON HDG WHICH INDICATED A TURN AWAY FM THE ARPT. THE LEFT PROP WAS FOUND IN THE FEATHER POSITION. NO MECH PBLM WAS DISCOVERED. THE RT ENG APPEARED TO BE PRODUCING FULL PWR AT IMPACT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1988_MKC88FA042.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗