CHI07CA076 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From West Michigan Regional Airport (BIV) to Mason County Airport (LDM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07CA076
- 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 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
- N5321D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From West Michigan Regional Airport (BIV), Holland, MITo Mason County Airport (LDM), Ludington, 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
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
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 substantially damaged when it struck a snow bank at the edge of the runway during takeoff and nosed over. The student pilot was not injured. The pilot reported that the start-up, taxi, and before takeoff inspection were normal. He noted that wind information was missing from the automated weather broadcast at the departure airport. Based on his observation of the wind sock, he estimated the winds were from 160 degrees at 8 knots. He selected runway 8 (6,264 feet by 100 feet, asphalt) for takeoff. The pilot stated that about 45 knots during the takeoff roll, the airplane started drifting to the left. When right rudder did not stop the drift, he applied the brake and reduced engine power. However, the airplane subsequently struck the snow bank adjacent to the edge of the runway and nosed over. A post accident inspection did not reveal any anomalies with the brakes or nose wheel steering consistent with a pre-impact failure.
Probable cause
The student pilot's inadequate compensation for the crosswind condition and his failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff, which caused the airplane to impact the snow bank and nose over. Contributing factors were the crosswind and the snow bank along the edge of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07CA076
- Event ID
- 20070313X00284
- Case number
- CHI07CA076
- 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: 98001240833f62530934598870cfcd8db8eb5ff301849f0bdd8f0b5998929a02; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:01:30.835Z.