GAA18CA313 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) to Payson Airport (PAN)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA313
- 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
- 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
- N780JA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC), Prescott, AZTo Payson Airport (PAN), Payson, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2007)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during a short-field takeoff, around 100 ft above the ground, he saw the primary flight display (PFD) airspeed indicator showing 0. He added that the engine appeared to be functioning normally, but he decided to level the airplane and attempt to land on the remaining runway. The airplane then began to turn left, and he added right rudder. Subsequently, the airplane touched down on an adjacent taxiway left of the runway, and the nose landing gear collapsed.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left horizontal stabilizer.
Postaccident examination videos were provided by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector. The videos showed both the PFD and backup airspeed indicators moving in sync with air applied to the pitot tube.
The automated weather observation system at the airport reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 190° at 10 knots, gusting to 18 knots, and the calculated density altitude was 7,883 ft. The pilot was departing from runway 24.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain yaw control during a short-field takeoff in high-density altitude conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA313
- Event ID
- 20180531X21710
- Case number
- GAA18CA313
- 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: 8e2181f9ef3af837d1ed475d3d6661898c4a8e89742304d91133d64d1786a1f3; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:20:32.912Z.