NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DFW05CA046
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll. A contributing factor was the muddy condition of the terrain.
Factual narrative
On December 29, 2004, at 1052 central standard time, at Cessna 172P single-engine airplane, N118FR, registered to a private individual and operated by Hi-Tech Aviation of Spring, Texas, sustained substantial damage following a loss of control during landing roll at the David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH), near Houston, Texas. The private pilot, sole occupant of the airplane, was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and a flight plan was not filed for the personal flight, which was conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The local flight originated from DWH approximately 1005. In a written statement, the 189-hour fixed-wing private pilot reported that he rented the airplane and practiced approximately five touch-and-go's on runway 17L at DWH. The pilot then departed to the west and noticed that " the weather was a bit marginal," so he returned to DWH. The pilot was cleared for a full-stop landing on runway 17R and landed uneventfully with ten degrees of flaps. He reported that as he began to apply brakes, the airplane veered off to the left. The pilot attempted to correct the situation, and the airplane veered to the right, and then back to the left again. At this time, the left main landing gear exited the runway and dug into muddy terrain. As a result, the airplane nosed into the ground, flipped over, and came to rest inverted. The pilot then evacuated the airplane, uninjured. Examination of the airplane by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector, who responded to the accident site, revealed structural damage to the left and right wing spars, as well as structural damage to the right wing strut. The braking system was examined, and no anomalies were found. At 1053, the automated weather observing system at DWH reported wind from 130 degrees at 6 knots, haze, few clouds at 1,000 feet, scattered clouds at 2,500 feet, scattered clouds at 3,400 feet, temperature 66 degrees Fahrenheit, dew point 63 degrees Fahrenheit, and an altimeter setting of 30.33 inches of Mercury. The 189-hour fixed-wing private pilot landed uneventfully with ten degrees of flaps. The pilot reported that as he began to apply brakes, the airplane veered off to the left. The pilot attempted to correct the situation, and the airplane veered to the right, and then back to the left again. At this time, the left main landing gear exited the runway and dug into muddy terrain. As a result, the airplane nosed into the ground, flipped over, and came to rest inverted. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2004_DFW05CA046.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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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.
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