NTSB ERA21LA311 — 2021-07-31 · Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States

Current FAA registration · N805CP

Make / Model: CESSNA 172S
Year of manufacture: 2021 · 0 years old at event
Engine: LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)
Seats / Engines: 4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date: 20210221
ADS-B equipped: Yes — Mode-S AAF4B0

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N805CP Cessna 172 None

Probable cause & findings

The flight instructor’s loss of directional control after an aerodynamic stall at takeoff.

Factual narrative

The flight instructor was demonstrating a soft field takeoff maneuver with 10° of flaps. After lift-off, the airplane “suddenly” and immediately yawed to its left. Both the angle of attack indicator and the stall warning horn provided audible alerts as the pitch attitude exceeded 10° on the primary flight display. The airplane rolled left, right, and left again before it touched down, transitioned a grass area, and came to rest upright on a taxiway. The pilots egressed the airplane unhurt and discovered substantial damage to the left wing. The flight crew reported that there were no mechanical deficiencies with the performance and handling of the airplane. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

— Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Capability exceeded
— Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Instructor/check pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2021_ERA21LA311.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers