WPR10CA013 · Cessna 172H
Sonoran Wings Flight Training Centre Cessna 172H · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Tucson International Airport (TUS) to Tucson International Airport (TUS)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10CA013
- 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 172H
- 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
- N51302
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tucson International Airport (TUS), Tucson, AZTo Tucson International Airport (TUS), Tucson, 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
- 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 from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he had performed two touch-and-go takeoffs and landings without incident. On the third landing, he noted the wind was straight down the runway. After touchdown, the pilot added power and raised the flaps for takeoff. Within a few seconds the airplane veered sharply to the left and he attempted to correct back to the runway. He observed taxiway lights and a large sign on his right side. The pilot stated that he did not want to damage the airplane by making an abrupt maneuver toward the runway, so he steered the airplane to the left and away from the sign; however, the tail section struck the sign. The airplane departed the runway and came to a stop in the field. Post-accident examination of the airplane revealed that the elevator had sustained substantial damage. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the airplane at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff ground roll.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10CA013
- Event ID
- 20091013X03006
- Case number
- WPR10CA013
- 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, 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: 1eda5a185a95ab34db547a686250afb062e29868265f846a3388765d21d498fe; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:23:58.590Z.