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Atlas / NTSB / CEN16CA070

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN16CA070

2015-11-20 Rush City, Minnesota, United States Airport · ROS None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N1180U

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172M

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19760309

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A04C56

Registrant of record

AOM AIRCRAFT LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot did not maintain directional control of the airplane and applied excessive right rudder during landing.

Factual narrative

The student pilot was completing his first solo flight and had already done eight takeoffs and landings. On the ninth landing, the airspeed was higher than normal and the airplane porpoised. When the airplane touched down the student pilot applied excessive right rudder. The airplane veered right and departed the right side of the runway into the soft wet ground. The airplane nosed into the mud and then came to rest upright. The left wing impacted the ground and was substantially damaged. The operator reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe that would have precluded normal operation. The student pilot was completing his first solo flight and had already done eight takeoffs and landings. On the ninth landing, the airspeed was higher than normal and the airplane porpoised. When the airplane touched down the student pilot applied excessive right rudder. The airplane veered right and departed the right side of the runway into the soft wet ground. The airplane nosed into the mud and then came to rest upright. The left wing impacted the ground and was substantially damaged. The operator reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe that would have precluded normal operation. 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-Student/instructed pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2015_CEN16CA070.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 ↗