LAX05CA302 · Cessna 172S
Westwind Aviation Cessna 172S · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid during landing
From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT) to Show Low Regional Airport (SOW)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05CA302
- 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
- N121CW
- Operator
- Westwind Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, AZTo Show Low Regional Airport (SOW), Show Low, 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During landing, the airplane's tail impacted the ground and resulted in substantial damage to the base of the rudder and the right elevator. The pilot obtained the weather information from an airport located about 12 nautical miles southeast of the accident airport. The winds were reported from 130 degrees at 15 knots, gusting to 18 knots. After an attempted landing for runway 03, the pilot performed a go-around and entered the landing pattern for runway 06. The pilot said he thought the windsock indicated favorable winds for landing runway 06. The approach to land was normal and the pilot flared the airplane, touching down on the right main gear first, and then the airplane bounced. The pilot said the airplane was suddenly pushed aside, to the north end of the runway and the tail section impacted the ground. The airplane settled to the ground momentarily before the pilot was able to perform the go-around and land uneventfully on runway 24. Post accident examination revealed that the right elevator was jammed. No mechanical malfunctions were noted with the airplane prior to the accident. An automated weather observation system (AWOS) for Show Low reported the following weather information 10 minutes following the accident: wind from 230 degrees at 20 knots, gusting to 26 knots. Ten minutes prior to the accident, the winds were reported from 200 degrees at 18 knots, gusting to 22 knots.
Probable cause
the pilot's selection of a downwind runway for landing and his inadequate compensation for the strong and gusty quartering tail wind conditions, which resulted in a tail strike during landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05CA302
- Event ID
- 20051013X01643
- Case number
- LAX05CA302
- 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: 7501bd825a41b015093dfb5a877597e048017807e96ed34968cf8a348ff00745; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:21:38.848Z.