NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA12CA374
Registry · N4895A
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
PIPER PA-18A 150
Year of manufacture
1956 · 56 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING O-360-A4M (180 hp)
Seats / Engines
1 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19810818
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A60D10
Registrant of record
HIGH EXPOSURE INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s loss of directional control during the landing roll, which resulted in a runway excursion.
Factual narrative
The pilot stated that he was landing the tailwheel-equipped airplane in gusty, crosswind conditions. During the landing roll, the airplane encountered a gust of wind and "weathervaned" to the right. The pilot applied rudder to correct, but the airplane continued right, traveled off the side of the runway, and ground looped, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing. The operator reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Postaccident examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector also revealed no anomalies. The pilot stated that he was landing the tailwheel-equipped airplane in gusty, crosswind conditions. During the landing roll, the airplane encountered a gust of wind and "weathervaned" to the right. The pilot applied left rudder, but the airplane continued right, traveled off the side of the runway, and ground looped, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing. The operator reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Postaccident examination of the airplane also revealed no anomalies. 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
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2012_ERA12CA374.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 (runway excursion). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- 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,…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗