CEN12CA148
2012-02-05 · Thedford, Nebraska, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport TIF
Current FAA registration · N3671Z
- Make / Model
- PIPER PA-18
- Engine
- CONT MOTOR C90 SERIES (95 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 2 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19600630
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A428E0
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot did not maintain directional control during landing, which resulted in a runway excursion.
Factual narrative
The private pilot reported that he was on landing rollout on the runway when the left main gear hit a patch of ice on the runway and the airplane began to veer to the left. The pilot’s efforts to correct the veer were unsuccessful and the airplane spun more than 90 degrees nose to the left and impacted terrain and a snowbank. The airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. The airplane’s fuselage, right wing, and right wing strut were substantially damaged during the accident. The pilot reported that, during the landing roll, the left main landing gear hit a patch of ice on the runway, and the airplane began to veer to the left. The pilot’s efforts to correct the veer were unsuccessful, and the airplane spun more than 90 degrees to the left and impacted a snowbank. The airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. The airplane’s fuselage, right wing, and right wing strut were substantially damaged during the accident. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Runway/land/takeoff/taxi surfa-Snow/slush/ice covered-Effect on equipment
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2012_CEN12CA148.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway excursion). All research papers
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article Runway Excursion — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary runway excursion review — RE-OE (overruns) + RE-LO (lateral). Risk drivers: long landing, high approach speed, contaminated surface, tailwind, mis-set autobrakes.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2019 · Accident report Embraer ERJ 175 Runway Excursion at Charlotte Douglas
Republic Airline ERJ-175 runway excursion CLT, January 2018. Examines a low-energy runway excursion involving misuse of autobrakes + thrust reverser response after a high-crosswind landing on a contam…
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Presentation Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Conference Paper Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- Flight Safety Foundation 2024 · FSF / AeroSafety World Runway Safety Initiative Final Report (RSI)
Foundation Runway Safety Initiative final report — comprehensive analysis of runway excursion + incursion risk drivers worldwide.
- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article Towards online prediction of safety-critical landing metrics in aviation using supervised machine learning
Abstract In recent years, due to the increased availability of data and improvements in computing power, application of machine learning techniques to various aviation safety problems for identifying,…