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Atlas / NTSB / GAA16CA187

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event GAA16CA187

2016-03-06 Scottsdale, Arizona, United States Airport · SDL None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N6023V

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172S

Year of manufacture

2006 · 10 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20060606

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A7D182

Registrant of record

CHRISTIANSEN AVIATION LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The failure of the student pilot to maintain pitch control while landing, which resulted in a hard landing, loss of directional control, and runway excursion.

Factual narrative

The solo student pilot reported that the airplane bounced after touched down, then veered off the runway to the left and came to a stop in gravel. A postaccident exam revealed substantial damage to the firewall. According to the student pilot there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The solo student pilot reported that the airplane bounced after touched down, then veered off the runway to the left and came to a stop in gravel.   A postaccident exam revealed substantial damage to the firewall. According to the student pilot there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. 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-Pitch control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • 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-Student/instructed pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2016_GAA16CA187.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗