NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA17CA245
Registry · N4017Y
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 185
Year of manufacture
1961 · 56 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR I0-470 SERIES (260 hp)
Seats / Engines
6 seats · 1 engine
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A4B3BC
Registrant of record
17Y LLC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s improper landing flare, which resulted in a bounced landing, the failure of the right main landing gear wheel, and a ground loop.
Factual narrative
The pilot in the tailwheel gear-equipped airplane reported that he setup for a wheel landing to an asphalt runway. During touch down the airplane bounced three times and the right landing gear wheel split into two pieces. The airplane ground looped to the left and exited the left side of the runway. The right wing tip and the elevator struck the ground. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right elevator. The pilot in the tailwheel-gear-equipped airplane reported that he set up for a wheel landing to an asphalt runway. During touchdown, the airplane bounced three times, and the right landing gear wheel split into two pieces. The airplane ground looped to the left and exited the left side of the runway. The right wing tip and the elevator struck the ground, and the airplane sustained substantial damage to the right elevator. 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-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2017_GAA17CA245.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.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2022 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Comparison of Schedules, Stress, Sleep Problems, Fatigue, Mental Health and Well-being of Low Cost and Network Carrier Pilots
Objective This research investigates and compares working-conditions, duty rosters, stress, sleep problems, fatigue levels, mental health, and well-being of pilots working for network (NWCs), and low-…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 1996 · Journal article (JAAER)
The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule as a Predictor of Success in a Collegiate Professional Pilot Training Program
This study examined the preliminary results of a project designed to identify a method to predict successful student completion of a collegiate professional pilot curriculum.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 1994 · Journal article (JAAER)
Testing for the Existence of the Pilot Personality Profile in Collegiate Professional Pilot Candidates
This study explored the existence of the so-called pilot's personality profile in collegiate professional pilot candidates, based on selected factors of the Edwards Personality Preference Schedule (EP…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗