ATL02LA080
2002-04-08 · Ocala, Florida, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport OCF
Current FAA registration · N3470C
- Make / Model
- CESSNA 170B
- Year of manufacture
- 1954 · 48 years old at event
- Engine
- CONT MOTOR C145 SERIES (145 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 4 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19551111
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A3D9AA
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control on landing roll, resulting in a loss of control/ground loop.
Factual narrative
On April 8, 2002 at 0800 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 170B, N3470C registered to a private pilot, collided with the ground adjacent to runway 36 while attempting a landing at Ocala Regional Airport in Ocala, Florida. The personal flight operated under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight originated from Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Lakeland, Florida at 0725 and was enroute to Ocala Regional Airport in Ocala, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident and a visual flight rules flight plan was filed. The airplane was substantially damaged and the air transport pilot and his passenger were not injured. The pilot stated that the approach profile to land was normal and the airplane touched down on the centerline of runway 36, approximately 2000 down the runway. Immediately upon touchdown, the airplane departed the runway surface to the right and ground looped. The pilot attempted to correct directional control problem by adding full left rudder and full right aileron, but the pilot was unable to stop the ground loop. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or system failure with the airplane. The reported winds at the time of the accident were light and variable; the 6,096 foot long runway surface condition was dry. The pilot stated that the approach to land was normal and the airplane touched down on the centerline of runway 36, approximately 2000 down the runway. Immediately upon touchdown, the airplane departed the runway surface to the right and ground looped. The pilot attempted to correct directional control problem by adding full left rudder and full right aileron, but the pilot was unable to stop the ground loop. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or system failure with the airplane. The reported winds at the time of the accident were light and variable; the 6,096 foot long runway surface condition was dry. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2002_ATL02LA080.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). All research papers
- 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.
- Semantic Scholar 2024 · Article (International Conference on Networking and Services) Risk Assessment of Loss of Control In-Flight Trajectories for Urban Air Mobility Safety
In Urban Air Mobility (UAM), maintaining a minimum separation between aircraft is a safety requirement, which becomes challenging amidst congested air traffic and off-nominal conditions, such as Loss …
- 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.