Cessna 172 goes missing over Lake Pontchartrain. Instructor & student found dead

On November 24, 2025, Cessna 172N N80FP departed Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport on an instrument-training flight toward New Orleans Lakefront Airport. Flight instructor Taylor Dickey and student David Michael Jahn were aboard.

The aircraft was operating at night as it approached the New Orleans area. Flight-track information showed the airplane descending toward the Lakefront Airport area. At about 18:23 local time, it entered a tight descending left turn lasting roughly 27 seconds. The last recorded altitude was about 1,100 feet before radar contact was lost.

The aircraft went down in Lake Pontchartrain. Search efforts followed, involving the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies. The wreckage was eventually located in the lake after the initial search effort had been unsuccessful.

The preliminary investigation documents the flight path and recovery but does not establish a final probable cause. That means the recorded descent can be described, but the reason for the turn and loss of control cannot be presented as a settled finding.

The operational environment was challenging. It was dark over a large body of water, with limited visual references. The available account also describes intermittent cloud cover in the area. Those conditions are relevant to the investigation, but they are not by themselves proof of the cause.

Both occupants died. The accident remains an example of why night instrument training over areas without strong visual references can become difficult when the aircraft's attitude, position or flight path begins to diverge from the expected approach.

The flight and the people aboard

The aircraft was a Cessna 172N operated by Apollo Flight Training and Aircraft Management, based at the Million Air terminal at Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi. It left Gulfport at about 5:45 p.m. bound for New Orleans Lakefront Airport, where the plan was to fly practice instrument approaches. Radar and radio contact were lost at approximately 6:23 p.m., roughly four miles north of Lakefront.

Taylor Dickey, aged 30, was the flight instructor. The flight school’s owner described her as highly qualified and said she was around 200 hours short of the total needed to meet airline hiring requirements, which was the goal she was working toward. The student, also 30, was Lieutenant David Michael Jahn of the United States Navy, stationed with a Naval Mobile Construction Battalion at Gulfport. He was working toward commercial and instrument ratings, and was receiving instrument instruction on this flight — training that requires the pilot to fly by reference to cockpit instruments rather than to anything visible outside.

Because instructor and student commonly exchange control during instrument training, the flight school noted that it was not possible to say from the outside which of the two was flying when contact was lost. No distress call was made on either the approach or the tower frequency.

What the preliminary report established

The NTSB’s preliminary report placed the start of the descent about six nautical miles from the runway. The descending left turn that followed lasted roughly 27 seconds up to the final recorded position, and that last position was only about 500 feet from where the wreckage was later found — meaning the aircraft struck the water almost immediately after the last data point. The airplane broke apart on impact. Conditions were dark with intermittent cloud cover.

A preliminary report of this kind is a record of what happened, not an explanation of why. It does not assign a cause, and the sequence it describes is consistent with more than one possible explanation. The operator said early information suggested the problem was not mechanical, but that is an operator’s assessment made before the investigation concluded, not a finding.

The search

The Coast Guard was alerted after the aircraft lost communications with air traffic control and began searching the same night. About an hour after contact was lost, a Coast Guard crew observed discoloration on the water, and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries personnel recovered a seat cushion and other debris that the operator identified as consistent with the missing aircraft.

Hope faded quickly for a specific reason. A fixed-gear light aircraft that reaches the water under control will usually float for a considerable period, often inverted, with the wings remaining on the surface long enough for occupants to climb out. When the first search grid produced no floating airframe, the likelihood of a survivable ditching effectively disappeared. The Coast Guard later suspended its search. Volunteer organisations continued working the lake, and the wreckage was subsequently located and largely recovered.

Why night instrument training over water is its own problem

Lake Pontchartrain at night offers almost nothing in the way of external visual reference. Over open water in darkness there is no horizon, no ground texture and no lighting to establish attitude by eye. A pilot flying on instruments in that environment has no natural backup if scan breaks down, and the transition between instrument reference and an attempted visual reference is one of the most demanding moments in the flight. That context matters to understanding the environment the crew were operating in. It is not, on its own, a cause.

What remains unresolved

The preliminary record supports the aircraft identity, route, nighttime operation, descending turn, radar loss, wreckage recovery and fatalities. It does not support a final causal statement. Weather, visual conditions, human factors and the exact sequence inside the cockpit remain matters for the investigation rather than established conclusions.

Accident Facts

Recorded line: “On 24 November 2025, a Cessna 172N Skyhawk (N80FP) crashed into Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans during the approach phase of a training flight.”

Sources

Accident information summarized in the preliminary-investigation record for N80FP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO8606Nz32c