Cessna 177 N235LA

Summary

On 22 July 2001 at about 23:40 local time, a Cessna 177 registered N235LA was involved in an accident near Benton, Illinois, 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

22 July 2001 at 23:40

Classification

Accident

Location

Benton, Illinois, United States

Nearest airport

Benton Muni (H96)

Coordinates

38.0067, -88.9486

Aircraft

Cessna 177

Registration

N235LA

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Benton → Warsaw

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI01FA234

3 people died.

The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, resulting in a stall.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane was destroyed on impact with objects and terrain during initial climb. A post impact on-ground fire occurred. A person representing N235LA called flight service for a weather update between Benton, Illinois (H96), and Terre Haute, Indiana. The person stated he was in H96 and during the brief said, "Yeah, you know it looks much better standing on the ground than flying around in it." the briefer said, "okay, well, that could make a difference because if you're in benton, there's nothing between you and terre haute however if you're a hundred miles, if you're in one hotel two which is uhm, uh, where i have a kind of suspicion you may be ... yeah, and there is a little bit of a thunderstorm west of you about twenty miles, do you see buildups to the west? ... yeah, i have a suspicion you're actually at effingham ... uh, those thunderstorms to the west of you is the only thing even vaguely close to your route of flight." A witness observed the airplane taking off to the north from H96. The witness demonstrated the angle the airplane was climbing at. That angle was about 45 degrees. She stated that she heard what she thought was thunder. She saw smoke and called 911. Two other witnesses stated they heard two loud claps of thunder and saw lightning strike in the vicinity of the airport. They reported that after the second clap of thunder, they saw smoke coming from the boat factory. They said that the whole northern sky was black and they could hear thunder. They stated that they did not see the airplane strike the ground. Rain began falling after the accident occured. An on-scene investigation was conducted and no pre-impact anomalies were found. Subsequent to the accident, the weather briefer was decertified, given additional training, and had been reinstated.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.