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Atlas / NTSB / CEN10CA260

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN10CA260

2010-05-16 Duluth, Minnesota, United States Airport · DYT None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N6545A

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 180

Engine

CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19560414

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A89E9E

Registrant of record

WUNROW STEVEN M

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot was landing to the southeast on a 3,050-foot-long by 75-foot-wide asphalt runway. The winds reported at the time of the accident were from 070 degrees at 3 knots. The pilot said the airplane made a sudden turn to the left approximately 200 to 300 feet down the runway, after a normal touchdown. He applied right rudder and right brake, but the airplane drifted off the left side of the runway and the left wing tip impacted the ground. The airplane came to rest at a 45 degree angle to the runway. The pilot said he had very little recent flight experience. He felt this accident could have been prevented if he had flown with a flight instructor after having been away from flying for such a long period of time. There was substantial damage to the left wing tip and to the spar of the left wing. The pilot reported he was not injured. The pilot was landing to the southeast on a 3,050 feet long by 75 feet wide asphalt runway. The winds reported at the time of the accident were from 070 degrees at 3 knots. The pilot said the airplane made a sudden turn to the left approximately 200 to 300 feet down the runway, after a normal touchdown. He applied right rudder and right brake but the airplane drifted off of the left side of the runway and the left wing tip impacted the ground. The airplane came to rest at a 45 degree angle to the runway. The pilot said he had very little recent flight experience. He felt this accident could have been prevented if he had flown with a flight instructor after having been away from flying for such a long period of time. There was substantial damage to the left wing tip and to the spar of the left wing. The pilot reported he was not injured. 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 Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Lack of action-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2010_CEN10CA260.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. 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 ↗