ERA09CA430 · Cessna 172N
Manassas Aviation Center Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF) to Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09CA430
- 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
- N733BS
- Operator
- Manassas Aviation Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF), Manassas, VATo Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF), Manassas, VA
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On his third solo flight, the student pilot was practicing takeoffs and landings on the 3,703-foot-long by 100-foot-wide runway, and he had successfully completed one circuit. His flight instructor, who witnessed the accident, stated that on the second takeoff attempt the aircraft swerved to the left of the runway centerline as both main tires skidded, and the airplane impacted a runway sign. The student pilot continued the takeoff and the airplane became airborne. While the airplane was in the traffic pattern, the engine seized due to damage sustained during the takeoff sequence. The flight instructor provided guidance to maintain airspeed and aircraft control over the radio, and the student pilot subsequently landed without further incident. In his statement, the student pilot explained that the left brake was sticking during his initial takeoff roll; however, examination of the airplane after the accident revealed no mechanical anomalies. The flight instructor reported that the student pilot had been instructed to “abort the takeoff by pulling the throttle to idle and applying the brakes as appropriate” if the takeoff roll was not normal.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09CA430
- Event ID
- 20090731X95516
- Case number
- ERA09CA430
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: af80b61869f3a4f07d99f9fa5c00119f848a4e57f271e0ae18b56a4ca178c2ce; retrieved 2026-09-15T12:06:34.131Z.