NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA19TA223
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional while landing with a quartering tailwind, which resulted in a ground loop.
Factual narrative
On July 7, 2019, about 1000 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 180J, N52031, was substantially damaged while landing at Okeechobee County Airport (OBE), Okeechobee, Florida. The airline transport pilot and passenger were not injured. The personal flight was conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the flight that departed Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, Florida, about 0900. The pilot reported that the airplane touched down on the runway 5 centerline and started to drift left. He corrected with right rudder input, but the airplane started to drift left again. He then applied right brake and rudder input, and the airplane changed direction 30°; however, the left wing and left horizontal stabilizer contacted the runway before the airplane came to a stop. The pilot added that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. Review of damage photographs provided by the pilot revealed substantial damage to the left wing, left elevator, and left horizontal stabilizer. The recorded wind at OBE, at 0955, was from 200° at 7 knots. The tailwheel-equipped airplane touched down on the runway centerline in a 7-knot right quartering tailwind and started to drift left. The pilot corrected with right rudder input, but the airplane started to drift left again. He then applied right brake and rudder input, and the airplane changed direction 30°; however, the left wing and left horizontal stabilizer contacted the runway before the airplane came to a stop. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing, left elevator, and left horizontal stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. 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 Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Effect on operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2019_ERA19TA223.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. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint
A Miniaturized Broadband 1-Bit Coding Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface for NLOS UE Localization and Uplink Communication
In this paper, a broadband 1-bit coding metasurface-based reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is presented. The unit cell of the metasurface consists of a wide dipole modified with interdigital c…
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
Distilling Tiny and Ultra-fast Deep Neural Networks for Autonomous Navigation on Nano-UAVs
Nano-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are ideal candidates for flying Internet-of-Things smart sensors to collect information in narrow spaces.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
A flexured-gimbal 3-axis force-torque sensor reveals minimal cross-axis coupling in an insect-sized flapping-wing robot
The mechanical complexity of flapping wings, their unsteady aerodynamic flow, and challenge of making measurements at the scale of a sub-gram flapping-wing flying insect robot (FIR) make its behavior …
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Conference paper
Integrated Propulsion and Control of Rotorcraft
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE OVERVIEW The Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is investigating the handling qualities of failure modes of multi-rotors employing di…
- NASA NTRS 2023 · Presentation
Subsonic Single Aft Engine (SUSAN) Flight Deck Experiment: Throttle and Engine Display Concepts
NASA is developing a new hybrid-electric aircraft concept called the SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan. The SUSAN airplane is being designed as a 180-passenger commercial regional jet and …
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗