NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA24LA092
Registry · N321EP
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 172S
Year of manufacture
2021 · 3 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20210219
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A37279
Registrant of record
EPIC AVIATION INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
A failure of the right brake during taxi, which resulted in a taxiway excursion and collision with a tree.
Factual narrative
Prior to start-up, the student pilot performed a preflight inspection while the flight instructor reviewed the airplane maintenance discrepancy sheet. The flight instructor noted that the airplane had recently been written up for inconsistent right brake pressure. Maintenance personnel resolved the discrepancy by tightening the pilot side brake pedal and returned the airplane to service. Everything appeared visually normal during the subsequent preflight inspection, and the student and instructor performed an engine runup with no braking problems noted. During the subsequent taxi to the runway, while attempting to negotiate a turn, the right brake was not effective despite both the student and the instructor applying brake pedal pressure. The airplane went off the taxiway and ultimately struck a tree resulting in substantial damage to the horizontal stabilizer. A review of photographs taken by an FAA inspector of the disassembled braking system components revealed that the right brake master cylinder o-ring appeared worn and possibly had a flat spot. It is possible that the wear/flat-spot of the o-ring could have allowed fluid to bypass it, which would have resulted in the inconsistent brake operation described by the pilots. 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).
- — Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Landing gear system-Brake-Failure
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Effect on equipment
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2024_ERA24LA092.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 (maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Crash Testing and Simulation of a Cessna 172 Aircraft: Pitch Down Impact Onto Soft Soil
During the summer of 2015, NASA Langley Research Center conducted three full-scale crash tests of Cessna 172 (C-172) aircraft at the NASA Langley Landing and Impact Research (LandIR) Facility.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM)
Simulating the Impact Response of Three Full-Scale Crash Tests of Cessna 172 Aircraft
During the summer of 2015, a series of three full-scale crash tests were performed at the Landing and Impact Research Facility located at NASA Langley Research Center of Cessna 172 aircraft.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗