CEN15LA024 · Cessna 172K P
Macair Aviation Cessna 172K P · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Greene County/Lewis A. Jackson Regional Airport (I19) to Greene County/Lewis A. Jackson Regional Airport (I19)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15LA024
- 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 172K P
- 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
- N79534
- Operator
- Macair Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greene County/Lewis A. Jackson Regional Airport (I19), Xenia, OHTo Greene County/Lewis A. Jackson Regional Airport (I19), Xenia, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 45 years (built 1969)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, during takeoff for the local personal flight, his seat unexpectedly moved rearward, and the seat back tipped rearward. As the seat slid rearward, the pilot inadvertently applied aft yoke and his feet came off the rudder pedals, which resulted in a loss of directional control. The airplane went off the left side of the runway and struck a ditch, which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane.
A postaccident examination of the pilot seat revealed that the forward outboard metal tang on the seat base that retained the base to the track was deformed. The forward outboard position of the base also contained the locking pin mechanism that adjusted the seat fore and aft and locked the seat into position. The deformation of the metal tang likely allowed the seat to become detached from the track and disengaged the locking pin, which allowed the seat to slide rearward. The seat back structure would not lock in any position after the accident. The reason why the seat back could not lock in position could not be determined.
The Federal Aviation Administration had previously issued an airworthiness directive (AD), which required repetitive inspections of the seat mechanism, including inspections of the tangs on the seat base. A review of airplane's maintenance records showed that the inspections had been performed in accordance with the AD. The deformation of the tang was consistent with a lateral deformation due to a sideways force, but it could not be determined if the deformation was present during the most recent inspection.
A review of the airplane maintenance discrepancy records showed that, the day before the accident, a different pilot had entered a maintenance discrepancy, which noted that the "left seat slid back three times during flight." The following day, a mechanic repaired the hold-down spring and returned the airplane to service. After that repair and before the accident flight, another pilot entered a maintenance discrepancy, which noted that the "left front seat was in the reclined position and would not lock in the upright position." The records showed that the discrepancy had not been corrected before the accident flight. It could not be determined whether or not the accident pilot was aware of the previous discrepancy reports.
Probable cause
The failure of the seat track mechanism, which led the pilot to inadvertently apply aft yoke and lift his feet off the rudder pedals and resulted in a loss of directional control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15LA024
- Event ID
- 20141023X25202
- Case number
- CEN15LA024
- 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: 106721e5ea3864cc94c82a57b1b5477a89498c7573348a612825c49c53ba0bdb; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:52:30.564Z.