NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA17CA573
Registry · N520KS
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 172S
Year of manufacture
2004 · 13 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20140730
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A689E0
Registrant of record
H2 LINK COMPANY
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
An in-flight collision with a bird while on downwind.
Factual narrative
The flight instructor reported that, while the student pilot was flying on downwind, he noticed a bird approaching the airplane. He added that he took the flight controls from the student, banked left, but the airplane struck the bird. The airplane landed without further incident. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing. The flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The Federal Aviation Administration Airport Facility Diagram page for the airport in part stated: "Birds and wildlife on and invof [in vincinity of] arpt." The flight instructor reported that, while the student pilot was flying on downwind, he noticed a bird approaching the airplane. He added that he took the flight controls from the student and banked left, but the airplane struck the bird. The airplane landed without further incident. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing. The flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The Federal Aviation Administration Airport Facility Diagram page for the airport stated, in part: "Birds and wildlife on and invof [in vicinity of] arpt." 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 Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Animal(s)/bird(s)-Ability to respond/compensate - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2017_GAA17CA573.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.
- 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 2023 · Conference paper
Validation of Training Satisfaction Survey
The Training Satisfaction Survey (TSS) was developed as part of a larger project to examine the features of Virtual Reality software and supporting devices as a training program on visual illusions an…
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Data in Brief)
Cockpit voice recorder transcript data: Capturing safety voice and safety listening during historic aviation accidents
Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) transcripts capture audio data within cockpit environments. This aids the investigation of causal factors contributing to aviation accidents by revealing communication and…
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Safety Science)
Safety voice and safety listening during aviation accidents: Cockpit voice recordings reveal that speaking-up to power is not enough
Abstract Safety voice is theorised as an important factor for mitigating accidents, but behavioural research during actual hazards has been scant.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2021 · Journal article (JAAER)
Can Backward-Chained, Ab-Initio Pilot Training Decrease Time to First Solo?
Flight simulation has made progressively significant inroads into pilot training at all levels of a pilot’s career – typically starting with training for the Instrument rating in light aircraft and co…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗