NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ANC10LA013
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during takeoff.
Factual narrative
On January 19, 2010, about 0930 Alaska standard time, a Cessna 172M airplane, N20109, sustained substantial damage when it collided with a snowbank following a loss of control during takeoff at the Bethel Airport, Bethel, Alaska. The airplane was being operated by Yute Air Taxi Inc., Bethel, as Flight 570, a visual flight rules (VFR) passenger flight under Title 14, CFR Part 135, when the accident occurred. The commercial pilot and the two passengers were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and company flight following procedures were in effect. The airplane was bound for Napakiak, Alaska. During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on January 19, The Director of Operations for the operator said the pilot told him he lost directional control of the airplane during the takeoff roll, and that the airplane went off the left side of the runway, and collided with a snowbank. The director said the airplane sustained structural damage to the fuselage aft of the nose wheel. He said there were no known mechanical problems with the airplane prior to the accident. In a written statement to the NTSB dated January 20, 2010, the pilot reported that after exiting the airplane he discovered that the left main landing gear wheel was locked up, and he was unable to rotate the wheel. In an email to the NTSB dated February 19, 2010, the director of operations reported that the left main landing gear wheel and assembly had been examined by their mechanics, and no mechanical malfunctions were discovered. The commercial pilot was taking off on a passenger flight when the accident occurred. The pilot reported that he lost directional control of the airplane during the takeoff roll, and that the airplane went off the left side of the runway and collided with a snowbank. The airplane sustained structural damage to the fuselage aft of the nosewheel. The pilot reported that after exiting the airplane he discovered that the left main landing gear wheel was locked up and that he was unable to rotate the wheel. The director of operations reported that the left main landing gear wheel and assembly was examined by their mechanics and that no mechanical malfunctions were discovered. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2010_ANC10LA013.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗