ERA24LA192
2024-04-20 · Zelienople, Pennsylvania, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport PJC
Current FAA registration · N684SP
- Make / Model
- CESSNA 172S
- Year of manufacture
- 1999 · 25 years old at event
- Engine
- LYCOMING I0360 SER (180 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 4 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19990203
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A913B1
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s inadequate compensation for the gusting crosswind condition during landing.
Factual narrative
While inbound to the airport the pilot stated that he listened to the automated terminal information service, which indicated that the wind was from 290° at 11 kts with gusts to 20 kts. The pilot selected runway 35 for the landing, and to compensate for the wind, he added an extra 5 knots to the approach speed. After passing the runway threshold during the final approach, while about 20 feet above the runway surface, the airplane suddenly rolled to the right and the right wingtip contacted the ground. The pilot further described that he thought that the airplane had encountered a significant wind shear. He then leveled the wings and added power to abort the landing, but the airplane impacted the runway several seconds later. The airplane came to rest in the grass to the left of the runway and the airplane’s fuselage and right wing were substantially damaged during the accident sequence. The pilot stated that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. A surface weather observation taken about 9 minutes before the accident reported wind from 310° at 12 kts, with gusts to 17 kts. The wind conditions reported during the hour preceding and the hour following the accident included similar gusting crosswind conditions, with some directional variability/shearing reported about 40 minutes before and 1 hour after the accident time. 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-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Response/compensation
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Response/compensation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2024_ERA24LA192.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
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- Pilots of America Community ↗
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (wind shear). All research papers
- NASA NTRS 2023 · Reprint (Version printed in journal) Finite Element Simulation of Three Full-Scale Crash Tests for Cessna 172 Aircraft
The NASA Emergency Locator Transmitter Survivability and Reliability project was initiated in 2013 to assess the crash performance standards for the next generation of emergency locator transmitter (E…
- 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.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Optimal recovery from microburst wind shear
The flight path of a twin-jet transport aircraft is optimized in a microburst encounter during approach to landing. The objective is to execute an escape maneuver that maintains safe ground clearance …
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR) An Examination of Aviation Accidents Associated with Turbulence, Wind Shear and Thunderstorm
The focal point of the study reported here was the definition and examination of turbulence, wind shear and thunderstorm in relation to aviation accidents.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Analysis of extreme wind shear
New methods utilizing extreme value statistical theory are applied in the analysis of the largest wind component shear in a wind profile as a function of shear layer thickness and season.