GAA18CA460 · Cessna 172 S
Aviator Air Cessna 172 S · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Grand Prairie Municipal Airport (GPM) to Grand Prairie Municipal Airport (GPM)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA460
- 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 S
- 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
- N24144
- Operator
- Aviator Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Prairie Municipal Airport (GPM), Grand Prairie, TXTo Grand Prairie Municipal Airport (GPM), Grand Prairie, TX
- 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
- 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 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 student pilot reported that, while practicing soft-field takeoffs, the airplane lifted off about midfield and drifted left. He and the flight instructor tried to correct, but the airplane struck a runway sign and spun left.
The flight instructor reported that, during the soft-field takeoff, as soon as the airplane lifted off the ground, the student pilot lost his composure. He added that, while calling for the flight controls, he began to fight the student for the flight controls and yelled "let go." The airplane struck a taxiway sign, and the airplane spun to the left.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing.
The flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The automated weather observation station located on the airport reported that, about 15 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 210° at 11 knots. The student reported that the wind was from between 220° and 240° at 11 knots, gusting to 18 knots. The airplane departed from runway 17.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to maintain the runway centerline during takeoff with a crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA460
- Event ID
- 20180729X33542
- Case number
- GAA18CA460
- 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: df48582551e17670caedf6c865317302af1f9f287895bacfd67e1057eae08536; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:01:23.112Z.