Cessna 172P N98003

Summary

On 2 December 1995 at about 07:41 local time, a Cessna 172P registered N98003, operated by Spartan Flight School, was involved in an accident near Hallett, Oklahoma, United States. 3 people were on board and 3 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

2 December 1995 at 07:41

Classification

Accident

Location

Hallett, Oklahoma, United States

Coordinates

36.2299, -96.5592

Aircraft

Cessna 172P

Registration

N98003

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Spartan Flight School

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Stillwater → Tulsa

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Night/Bright

NTSB number

FTW96FA058

3 people died.

The flight instructor's intentional low altitude flight maneuver. Factors were the static wire and the bright night condition.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor, his student, and a passenger departed Stillwater Municipal Airport at 0120 for a night instructional cross country flight. They flew east climbing to 3,500 feet MSL and parallel to the Cimarron Turnpike. The Cimarron Turnpike, elevation 980 feet, is a 4 lane white cement highway with a 10 foot wide grass strip separating the east and westbound lanes. The spacing of the eastbound traffic, at that time of night, was 5 to 8 miles apart and the moon was approximately 85% full. At 0138:20, radar showed the airplane flying a descending box pattern over the turnpike culminating with impacting the 7/16 inch stainless steel static wires which were 64 feet over the turnpike. The airplane impacted on the eastbound lanes and slid east, 3 feet north of the center line and exactly parallel to it for a 162 feet. Moments before the impact, witnesses 'noticed a bright, single light practically directly behind' them. Because no other vehicles arrived at the accident scene for approximately 5 minutes, they believe the bright light they saw was that of the airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.