GAA16CA022 · Cessna 180H H
Cessna 180H H · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Chamberlain Municipal Airport (9V9) to Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA022
- 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 180H H
- 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
- N9780G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chamberlain Municipal Airport (9V9), Chamberlain, SDTo Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD), Sioux Falls, SD
- Aircraft age
- About 43 years (built 1972)
- 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
- Landing
- 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 in flight
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he received information Papa prior to landing, information Papa was wind 240 degrees at 20 knots, and he was landing on runway 33. He reported that it "occurred" to him that it was a 20 knot direct crosswind.
The pilot reported that while landing in crosswind conditions, he was "holding extreme" left aileron to compensate for the crosswind. He reported that as the airplane touched down, a gust lifted the left wing, and he was "unable to keep it down" with aileron control inputs. Subsequently the right wing impacted the runway, and the airplane ground looped.
The pilot reported that there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right aileron.
According to the manufacturer, the accident airplane's Owner's Manual does not specify a demonstrated maximum crosswind component, however a similar make and model airplane's Pilot Operating Handbook specifies a maximum demonstrated crosswind component of 12 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to land with a 20 knot direct cross wind, which resulted in a loss of directional control and the right wing impacting terrain and a subsequent ground loop.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA022
- Event ID
- 20151021X11755
- Case number
- GAA16CA022
- 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: 2091fdc7180df54b9ca03c0da300dd92e74d648fcebea10ef9561367fc82128a; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:54:36.081Z.