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Atlas / NTSB / CEN12CA213

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN12CA213

2012-03-24 Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States Airport · KCBF None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N368ES

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172R

Year of manufacture

1997 · 15 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING I0360 SER (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19970328

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A42A79

Registrant of record

MINDY LIMITED LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot’s improper flare and inadequate recovery from a bounced landing, which resulted in a loss of directional control.

Factual narrative

A student pilot was practicing takeoff and landings. He reported that he flared early and the airplane ballooned. The airplane then bounced firmly several times. The pilot lost direction control of the airplane and the airplane departed the side of the runway colliding with an airfield light. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed damage to the firewall and fuselage. No other anomalies were found. The student pilot was practicing takeoffs and landings. He reported that he flared the airplane early and that it ballooned before bouncing firmly several times. The pilot subsequently lost directional control of the airplane, which then departed the side of the runway and collided with an airfield light. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed damage to the firewall and fuselage. No other anomalies were found. 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-Incorrect action performance-Pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Incorrect use/operation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2012_CEN12CA213.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 ↗