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ERA24LA145 · Textron Aviation Inc 172S

15 Mar 2024 · Melbourne, FL, United States

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Textron Aviation Inc 172S · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing

From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ERA24LA145
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
Event fatalities
Unknown
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

Textron Aviation Inc 172S

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
N838ER
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), Daytona Beach, FLTo not recorded
Aircraft age
About 1 year (built 2023)
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 · flare/touchdown
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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The student pilot was on the first leg of his initial solo cross-country flight. He was initially cleared for an approach to runway 9R at the destination airport, with a surface wind reported from 110° at 13 knots. After reporting a 7-mile final for runway 9R, tower controller directed him to land on runway 5. During landing, as the nose wheel touched down, the airplane “weathervaned” to the right. He abruptly added left rudder, which resulted in the airplane’s wheels “side drift[ing]” to the right and he lost control of the airplane. The airplane departed the runway to the right, eventually coming to rest in a grassy area adjacent to the runway. The right wing and upper fuselage were substantially damaged during the runway excursion. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Following the accident, the flight school that operated the airplane reminded its students that when they are switched from a runway with a headwind to one with a crosswind, it is acceptable to decline an air traffic control request if students are uncomfortable with it.

Probable cause

The student pilot’s failure to maintain directional control while landing in a crosswind.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA24LA145
Event ID
20240319193960
Case number
ERA24LA145
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, cause areas. 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: 28dc3efb7263392041119a501c26e79931b12fd9c067c2dacbdd2068ceb1458b; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:36:30.150Z.