GAA17CA096 · Piper PA28 180
Piper PA28 180 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Upper Cumberland Regional Airport (SRB) to Monroe County Airport (MNV)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA096
- 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
Piper PA28 180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N7646W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Upper Cumberland Regional Airport (SRB), Sparta, TNTo Monroe County Airport (MNV), Madisonville, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 52 years (built 1964)
- 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 on ground
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 student pilot reported that, during landing after a cross-country solo flight, as the main landing gear touched down, the airplane encountered a crosswind, and he lost control of the airplane. He further reported that the airplane exited the right side of the runway and came to rest in the tree(s).
The student pilot reported there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
There was no local historic weather observation facility within 25 nautical miles of the accident airport, but the student pilot reported the wind direction was variable at 5 knots gusting to 10 knots. The student pilot landed runway 5.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing with a gusting crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA096
- Event ID
- 20161220X24626
- Case number
- GAA17CA096
- 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: dea97bb4ca62401cd38fe1c08bb06de806cccf0aae45f881062ea3a20ca814f3; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:54:27.138Z.