GAA18CA005 · Cessna 172 M
Cessna 172 M · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Marshfield Municipal Airport (MFI) to Black River Falls Area Airport (BCK)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA005
- 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 M
- 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
- N9664Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marshfield Municipal Airport (MFI), Marshfield, WITo Black River Falls Area Airport (BCK), Black River Falls, WI
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1975)
- 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
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during landing in a gusting crosswind, the airplane landed on the left wheel first. He added that "all of a sudden it was like a huge gust of wind took the plane and just threw it to the right." The propeller struck the runway, and the airplane then exited the runway to the right and came to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
A review of recorded data from the automated weather observation station located on the airport revealed that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 190° at 9 knots, gusting to 17 knots. The airplane landed on runway 26.
The Pilot's Operating Handbook contained a section titled, "Crosswind Landing," which stated, in part: "The maximum allowable crosswind velocity is dependent upon pilot capability rather than aircraft limitations. With average pilot technique, direct crosswinds of 15 knots can be handled with safety."
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing in gusting crosswind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA005
- Event ID
- 20171010X14233
- Case number
- GAA18CA005
- 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, coordinates. 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: 022a6699583001969a3429f9b0fa4b1773e03fab98aabbb2181eadc961e458e9; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:55:29.784Z.