GAA16CA181 · Cessna 172 N
Cessna 172 N · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Orangeburg Municipal Airport (OGB) to Orangeburg Municipal Airport (OGB)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA181
- 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 172 N
- 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
- N2124E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orangeburg Municipal Airport (OGB), Orangeburg, SCTo Orangeburg Municipal Airport (OGB), Orangeburg, SC
- Aircraft age
- About 38 years (built 1978)
- 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
The pilot reported while practicing take offs and landings, he made a standard approach and landing to runway 35. On takeoff, he reduced the flaps to zero degrees and he reported that the airplane was under control and over the runway centerline. After he applied full power and right rudder before lifting off the ground, the airplane started turning to the left sharply. He applied additional right rudder, he reduced the power, and applied full brakes. The airplane departed the runway to left into a swamp and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and the firewall.
The pilot verified that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported that the wind velocity at the accident site was 6 to 7 knots and the wind direction was 330 degrees. The weather reporting facility at the accident site reported that about 3 minutes after the accident time that the wind velocity was 7 knots and the wind direction was 310 degrees.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff, resulting in a runway excursion and a nose over.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA181
- Event ID
- 20160411X24524
- Case number
- GAA16CA181
- 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: 7472419ae9c166e99f5041abf9dbfc4de30f035c7839ae0613f8021d4ab427f4; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:16:54.759Z.