NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN20CA176
Registry · N3238G
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
NORTH AMERICAN SNJ-6
Year of manufacture
1959 · 61 years old at event
Engine
P&W R1340 SERIES (600 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19590929
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A37CEC
Registrant of record
KING STEPHEN W
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's loss of directional control while landing a tailwheel airplane in gusty wind conditions.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that he had just completed a landing in a tailwheel equipped airplane, and he noticed the wind began to shift. He then elected to conduct another wheel landing. The pilot stated he landed on runway 17, on centerline, and that as he lowered the tail, the airplane experienced a strong pull to the right. He was unable to keep the airplane from departing the runway and as he reduced the throttle, the airplane entered a ground loop. The airplane's right main landing gear collapsed, and the wing and propeller struck the ground. Substantial damaged was noted to the right wing. A review of the weather conditions about the time of the accident noted wind at 330° at 3 kts, and 20 minutes later, the wind was reported as 360° at 11 kts with gusts to 17 kts. The accident is consistent with the pilot's loss of control during landing. The pilot reported that he had just completed a landing in a tailwheel equipped airplane, and he noticed the wind began to shift. He then elected to conduct another wheel landing. The pilot stated he landed on runway 17, on centerline, and that as he lowered the tail, the airplane experienced a strong pull to the right. He was unable to keep the airplane from departing the runway and as he reduced the throttle, the airplane entered a ground loop. The airplane's right main landing gear collapsed, and the wing and propeller struck the ground. Substantial damaged was noted to the right wing. A review of the weather conditions about the time of the accident noted wind at 330° at 3 kts, and 20 minutes later, the wind was reported as 360° at 11 kts with gusts to 17 kts. The accident is consistent with the pilot's loss of control during landing. 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-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- F Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-(general)-Effect on operation - F
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_CEN20CA176.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- 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.
- 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.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗