CEN24LA192 · Cessna 170 B
Cessna 170 B · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN24LA192
- 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
- 0
- 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 170 B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N74887
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 71 years (built 1953)
- 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 › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported during the takeoff from the turf runway with a crosswind present, he advanced the throttle “a little too fast.” As the tail of the airplane lifted off the ground, the pilot admitted he failed to apply “consistent” right rudder. The pilot closed the throttle and applied the brakes; however the left wing impacted a tree, the airplane spun to the left, and the right wing and the right elevator impacted the ground. The airplane came to rest upright in a ditch, and all three occupants were able to egress from the airplane without further incident. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, both wings, and the right elevator.
The pilot reported there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane. At the time of the accident, the airplane was 59 pounds below the maximum gross weight. The estimated density altitude for the closest meteorological reporting station, near the time of the accident, was 2,711 ft above mean sea level.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff, that resulted in an impact with a tree and the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN24LA192
- Event ID
- 20240520194283
- Case number
- CEN24LA192
- 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: 40010a8bb61f4c13d7ab6ee4aecf010fedcacb70ff69aab11a5fa6aa83d77b70; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:46:48.261Z.