GAA19CA151 · Cessna 172 R
Cessna 172 R · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU) to Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA151
- 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 R
- 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
- N83AF
- Operator
- American Flyers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU), Morristown, NJTo Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU), Morristown, NJ
- Aircraft age
- About 18 years (built 2001)
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor reported that, during takeoff with the student pilot on the flight controls, the airplane veered slightly left. The instructor assisted by applying rudder input, which corrected the veer, but then the airplane abruptly veered left. The instructor assumed control of the airplane, pulled the power, and applied brakes and rudder. The airplane exited the runway to the left into grass, and the nose landing gear collapsed.
The student reported that he recalled the instructor telling him about the airplane's left turning tendencies and having to correct with the opposite (right) rudder. He added that he may have corrected with the wrong rudder during the takeoff.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mount and fuselage.
The flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The airport's automated weather observation station reported that, about 10 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 290° at 7 knots. The airplane was departing from runway 31.
The Federal Aviation Administration's Airplane Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-3B, "Normal Takeoff," stated, in part:
As the airplane gains speed, the elevator control tends to assume a neutral position if the airplane is correctly trimmed. At the same time, the rudder pedals are used to keep the nose of the airplane pointed down the runway and parallel to the centerline. The effects of engine torque and P-factor at the initial speeds tend to pull the nose to the left (Torque and P-Factor will be discussed in greater detail in later chapter). The pilot must use whatever rudder pressure is needed to correct for these effects or winds.
Probable cause
The student pilot's improper rudder input and the flight instructor's delayed remedial action during takeoff, which resulted in a loss of directional control, a runway excursion, and the landing gear collapsing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA151
- Event ID
- 20190226X32612
- Case number
- GAA19CA151
- 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: 290985857f2a3e34a462f2b147b8443b2605d5440263e563acd97364f7d9c959; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:37:11.022Z.