NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ANC14CA026
Registry · N3469C
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 170B
Year of manufacture
1954 · 60 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR 0-300 SER (145 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19551022
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A3D72E
Registrant of record
SOROKA STEPHEN W
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to recognize a wind shift, resulting in a tailwind landing, loss of control, and ground loop.
Factual narrative
The student pilot was practicing solo takeoff and landings in a tailwheel-equipped airplane on a dry, hard surfaced runway. At the beginning of the flight, the winds were light and variable, but during the last landing, the wind had shifted to a slight tailwind. During the landing, the pilot lost control of the airplane, and ground looped, sustaining substantial damage to the right wing. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The student pilot was practicing solo takeoff and landings in a tailwheel-equipped airplane on a dry, hard surfaced runway. At the beginning of the flight, the winds were light and variable, but during the last landing, the wind had shifted to a slight tailwind. During the landing, the pilot lost control of the airplane, and ground looped, sustaining substantial damage to the right wing. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Identification/recognition-Student/instructed pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-(general)-Not attained/maintained - C
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot - C
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Effect on operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2014_ANC14CA026.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 (icing, 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.
- 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.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2012 · Journal article (JAAER)
Analysis of General Aviation Instructional Loss of Control Accidents
Although student pilots spend many hours practicing maneuvers to improve airmanship and prevent accidents, almost one half of all general aviation aircraft accidents occur during flight training.
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Contractor Report (CR)
Icing Physics Studies Using the 3D SIDRM Test Article: 2023 Icing Tests Analysis
In-flight icing is an important safety issue and is a factor that affects aircraft design and performance. Newer regulations are driving a need for improvements in airframe and engine icing simulation…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Assisted 5G Network Slicing: A Comparative Study of MAPPO, MADDPG, and MADQN
The growing demand for robust, scalable wireless networks in the 5G-and-beyond era has led to the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as mobile base stations to enhance coverage in dense urb…
- 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…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Mathematical Model on the Temporal Dynamics of Aviation Competitive Pricing
This study investigates the competitive dynamics of airport pricing using U.S. airport data to validate the findings. It employs linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equation models to analyze t…
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