Pilot Debrief

CESSNA 172 near Miami, FL — 2017-12-01

Final reportANC18LA014
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Date
2017-12-01
Location
Miami, FL, USA
Airport
TMB
Aircraft
CESSNA 172
Registration
N537HF
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
None
Fatalities
0
Phase of flight
Approach

Probable cause

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

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.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Human factors
First missed decision gate
Pilot did not activate pilot-controlled lighting before landing.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • 6 docket documents
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents6

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