CHI06CA189 · Cessna 172R
Tradewinds Aviation Cessna 172R · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Oakland County International Airport (PTK) to Oakland County International Airport (PTK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06CA189
- 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 172R
- 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
- N918TA
- Operator
- Tradewinds Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oakland County International Airport (PTK), Waterford, MITo Oakland County International Airport (PTK), Waterford, MI
- 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
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Go-around, not performed
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 was operated as an instructional flight when it veered off the runway during landing and nosed over in a grass area adjacent to the runway. The airplane was piloted by a student pilot during a student solo flight. The student pilot and his certified flight instructor performed several landings on runway 27L before the student pilot departed on the solo flight. The student pilot departed from runway 27R and performed a go-around on his first landing attempt on runway 27R; reportedly because, he could not "get the plane on centerline" and the presence of a "slight" crosswind. The student pilot completed the go-around and attempted again to land on runway 27R. During the level off, the student pilot stated that he held left aileron control into the wind and noted that the nose was yawed to the left. The airplane touched down with a "crab," veered off the runway, and nosed over.
Probable cause
The directional control not obtained/maintained, the inadequate compensation for wind conditions, and the go-around not performed during landing by the pilot. An additional cause was the lack of experience by the pilot. A contributing factor was the crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06CA189
- Event ID
- 20060908X01323
- Case number
- CHI06CA189
- 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: 80bf6ff662aa6859fb2ca3f222f6e8be635765245df0ffc48614d07bf758106d; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:40:47.379Z.