NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR10CA394
Registry · N179MM
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 170A
Engine
CONT MOTOR C145 SERIES (145 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19560426
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A13BBB
Registrant of record
DE SCHWEINITZ CHRISTIAN R
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to maintain aircraft control during the landing roll.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that he started his cross country flight in the tailwheel-equipped airplane in San Antonio, Texas with two rest stops in Roswell and Farmington, New Mexico. When landing to stop for a third time, the pilot checked the airport's automated weather, which indicated a “quartering right crosswind” of about 8 knots. The approach and landing were uneventful. During the landing roll a gust of wind struck the airplane and the airplane initiated a right turn. Despite the pilot’s control inputs the airplane ground looped, collapsing the left main landing gear and substantially damaging the left wing, fuselage and empennage. The pilot reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine prior to the accident. The accident airport’s automated weather observation system reported at the time of the accident, wind was from 240 at 13 knots. The pilot’s total flight time for the day was approximately 8.5 hours. The pilot reported that he started his cross country flight in the tailwheel-equipped airplane in San Antonio, Texas with two rest stops in Roswell and Farmington, New Mexico. When landing to stop for a third time, the pilot checked the airport's automated weather, which indicated a “quartering right crosswind” of about 8 knots. The approach and landing were uneventful. During the landing roll a gust of wind struck the airplane and the airplane initiated a right turn. Despite the pilot’s control inputs the airplane ground looped, collapsing the left main landing gear and substantially damaging the left wing, fuselage and empennage. The pilot reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine prior to the accident. The accident airport’s automated weather observation system reported at the time of the accident, wind was from 240 at 13 knots. The pilot’s total flight time for the day was approximately 8.5 hours. 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
- F Personnel issues-Physical-Alertness/Fatigue-(general)-Pilot - F
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-(general)-Contributed to outcome
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2010_WPR10CA394.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 · Abstract
Wetting Angle and Surface Tension of Germanium Melts on Different Substrate Materials
The sessile drop technique has been used to measure the wetting angle and the surface tension of molten germanium (Ge) on various substrate materials.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Abstract
Determination of the Wetting Angle of Germanium and Germanium-Silicon Melts on Different Substrate Materials
During Bridgman growth of semiconductors detachment of the crystal and the melt meniscus has occasionally been observed, mainly under microgravity (microg) conditions.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Abstract
Contact Angles and Surface Tension of Germanium-Silicon Melts
Precise knowledge of material parameters is more and more important for improving crystal growth processes. Two important parameters are the contact (wetting) angle and the surface tension, determinin…
- arXiv 2019 · arXiv preprint
Heat and water vapor transfer in the wake of a falling ice sphere and its implication for secondary ice formation in clouds
We perform direct numerical simulations of the settling of an ice sphere in an ambient fluid accounting for heat and mass transfer with the aim of studying in a meteorological context the case of fall…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗