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Atlas / NTSB / ANC15CA016

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ANC15CA016

2015-03-30 Wasilla, Alaska, United States Airport · Z40 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N4582C

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 170B

Year of manufacture

1953 · 62 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR C145 SERIES (145 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19551005

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A59275

Registrant of record

BONTRAGER BRIAN S

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the student while landing, which resulted in a ground loop. Contributing to the accident was the student pilots failure to maintain directional control of the tailwheel-equipped airplane during the landing roll.

Factual narrative

The flight instructor and student pilot were practicing landings in a tailwheel-equipped airplane. The flight instructor stated that on the fifth landing, during the landing roll, the airplane began to drift slightly to the right, and the student pilot inadvertently applied right rudder. In an effort to correct for the right turn, the flight instructor immediately applied full left rudder and brake while simultaneously pulling aft on the control yoke, but the airplane ground looped. During the ground loop the airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and left aileron. The flight instructor and student pilot were practicing landings in a tailwheel-equipped airplane. The flight instructor stated that on the fifth landing, during the landing roll, the airplane began to drift slightly to the right, and the student pilot inadvertently applied right rudder. In an effort to correct for the right turn, the flight instructor immediately applied full left rudder and brake while simultaneously pulling aft on the control yoke, but the airplane ground looped. During the ground loop the airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and left aileron. 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-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Task monitoring/vigilance-Instructor/check pilot - C
  • F Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot - F

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2015_ANC15CA016.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗