SEA00LA180 · Cessna 172L
Cessna 172L and Cessna 182P · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA00LA180
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N7195Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Orcas Island Airport (ORS), EASTSOUND, WA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Taxi · to runway
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 182P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N52746
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Orcas Island Airport (ORS), EASTSOUND, WA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Brakes(normal), improper use of
- Pilot of other aircraft › Brakes(normal), improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A Cessna 182P and a Cessna 172L were within a lineup of aircraft anticipating takeoff. The 182P was about 10-15 feet ahead of the 172L, and both aircraft were stopped on the taxiway. The pilot of the 172L focused his attention on setting up radio frequencies for his departure route, and when he looked up realized his aircraft was rolling forward. He applied braking and right rudder to swing the nose of his aircraft to the right during which the propeller of his aircraft struck the right horizontal stabilizer and elevator of the 182P. The pilot of the 182P felt a vibration, looked back, and observed the 172L behind him stopped with its propeller into the right elevator of his aircraft. The pilot of the 172L radioed the tower reporting, 'Ah, I just clipped the plane in front of me. My brakes slipped and I just crashed into his elevator.' He also reported no mechanical malfunction with his aircraft.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper use (inadvertent release) of the brakes. Contributing factors were, a standing aircraft and the pilot's diverting his attention from outside his aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA00LA180
- Event ID
- 20001212X22074
- Case number
- SEA00LA180
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 71f2b38c1986445be95f8cac3b2e2d2575eb65527b4b64c7a7dccab1aee556d7; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:26:30.535Z.