WPR15LA234 · Cessna 180J J
Cessna 180J J · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) while taxiing
From Wilson Bar US Forest Service Airport (C48) to Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR15LA234
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 180J J
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N52095
- Operator
- Patrick, Scott · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilson Bar US Forest Service Airport (C48), Dixie, IDTo Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI), Boise, ID
- Aircraft age
- About 41 years (built 1974)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Taxi · into takeoff position
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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 systems
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was conducting a nonscheduled passenger flight. The pilot reported that, while he was turning the airplane to align it with the runway for takeoff, the right brake failed. The pilot subsequently intentionally ground looped the airplane to avoid elevated terrain near the runway, during which the right wing struck terrain.
Postaccident examination of the right brake hydraulic line revealed that it was cracked where the line bends between the fuselage and main landing gear leg. It is likely that the crack caused a hydraulic fluid leak, which rendered the brake inoperative. Metallurgical examination of the fracture surface revealed fatigue striations and ratchet mark formations, consistent with a fatigue fracture.
Probable cause
The failure of the right brake hydraulic line during taxi due to fatigue, which caused a loss of hydraulic fluid and rendered the brake inoperative.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR15LA234
- Event ID
- 20150806X95619
- Case number
- WPR15LA234
- 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: f92bf44d3594321d5f7ca42758fd49532a22020b8abfb3d8651f49bac5f9fcd1; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:38:18.719Z.