Cessna 172 N537HF

Summary

On 1 December 2017 at about 04:01 local time, a Cessna 172 registered N537HF was involved in an accident near Miami, Florida, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

1 December 2017 at 04:01

Classification

Accident

Location

Miami, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Miami Executive (TMB)

Coordinates

25.6514, -80.4394

Aircraft

Cessna 172

Registration

N537HF

Category

Airplane

Year built

2000

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Miami → Miami

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

ANC18LA014

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's decision to continue the landing after a loss of visual cues during a night landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot indicated that after being cleared to land on the runway at the towered airport, he heard the controller state that the tower was closing. The pilot stated that, after turning onto the final segment of the traffic pattern and seeing the runway numbers, the runway lights extinguished. The pilot lost sight of the runway but continued to land. The airplane landed in the grass south of the east/west runway and impacted a taxiway light, which resulted in substantial damage to the left wing and lift strut. A review of the airfield lighting logs showed the lights were on at the time of the accident and transitioned to pilot-controlled lighting about 5 minutes after the accident. Further, archived radar data indicated that the airplane's last radar target appeared before the lights extinguished, which would indicate that the lights were on at the time of the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.