LAX01LA191 · Cessna 172S
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Prescott Cessna 172S · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) to Cottonwood Airport (P52)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01LA191
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 172S
- 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
- N506ER
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC), Prescott, AZTo Cottonwood Airport (P52), Cottonwood, 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Dual student › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Dual student › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane impacted terrain during an attempted rejected landing after the student loss control of the airplane during a landing roll. The flight instructor reported the student conducted a uneventful landing on runway 14 with proper control inputs and had placed the aircraft within 3 feet of centerline. As the airplane's nose wheel settled on the runway, the right wing "suddenly lifted, the aircraft rotated to the left, and [the airplane was] airborne." The flight instructor took control of the aircraft, applied full power, lowered the nose, and attempted to regain control of the airplane. As he maneuvered the aircraft to the left toward a clearing away from a building, the airplane impacted the ground with the left wing first, followed by the nose. The student had utilized 30 degrees of flaps during the landing and had not raised the flaps during the landing roll. A witness indicated that their flights were cancelled that day due to the gusty crosswind conditions. The closest weather observation facility reported the wind from 230 degrees (variable between 200 and 260 degrees) at 10 knots gusting to 20 knots. The flight school's Airplane Maneuvers Guide, under a section titled "Normal and Crosswind Approach and Landing," had a note indicating, "CROSSWIND CONDITIONS MAY REQUIRE A REDUCED FLAP SETTING FOR APPROACH AND LANDING. CARE MUST BE EXCERCISED TO ENSURE ADEQUATE RUNWAY LENGTH." The section also indicates, "Gusty wind conditions may require a touchdown at a slightly higher speed than normal (5-10 KIAS above power-off stall speed) and a slightly lower than normal pitch attitude. A reduced flap setting may also be necessary." The Pilot Information Manual for the accident airplane indicates that the maximum demonstrated crosswind component was 15 knots. Review of the student's flight records revealed he had received an unsatisfactory rating during a stage check flight about 1 month prior to the accident. One of the reasons listed for the unsatisfactory rating was "improper x-wind (crosswind) correction during taxi."
Probable cause
the student's inadequate compensation for the gusty crosswind conditions and the subsequent loss of aircraft control during landing roll. The flight instructor’s inadequate supervision and his inadequate remedial action is also causal. Contributing factors were the gusty and crosswind weather conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01LA191
- Event ID
- 20010601X01053
- Case number
- LAX01LA191
- 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, coordinates. 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: 0f757a1e13b5891158ae3a3c185cd5af934a916ef2fa47fca3ca0d8679eb7c6d; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:08:00.771Z.