LAX87LA108 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM) to Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA108
- 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
Cessna 172N
- 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
- N64484
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM), Yuma, AZTo Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZ
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Wind information, not understood
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 172M VEERED LEFT DURING TAKEOFF GROUND RUN ON RWY 8 AND NOSED DOWN ON THE RWY. THE PLT INDICATED THAT HE ENCOUNTERED A LEFT 90 DEGREE X-WIND GUSTING UP TO 20 KTS. THE ACFT BEGAN TO VEER UNCONTROLLED INTO THE WIND. HE ELECTED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF AT WHICH TIME THE ACFT TURNED SIDEWARDS. THE ACFT THEN NOSED DOWN AND CAME TO REST ON THE RIGHT WING AND NOSE COWLING. THE PLT ALSO INDICATED THE ACFT WAS MODIFIED WITH A TAILWHEEL CONVERSION AND THAT THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE WINDS WERE REPORTED FROM 350 DEGREES AT 12 KTS GUSTING TO 24 KTS AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE OWNERS MANUAL FOR THE ACFT INDICATES THAT 15 KTS IS THE MAX DEMONSTRATED X-WIND VELOCITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA108
- Event ID
- 20001213X30262
- Case number
- LAX87LA108
- 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: 2585a43d82ceb19354f8682f4c303e216a9add8990fdf90b08396b2319c901be; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:33:58.854Z.