NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR10LA312
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control while landing with a crosswind.
Factual narrative
On June 23, 2010, about 1305 mountain standard time, a Cessna 170B, N432PB, sustained substantial damage following a loss of control during the landing roll at the Avi Suquilla Airport, Parker, Arizona. The private pilot and his passenger received minor injuries. The owner/pilot was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the personal flight, which had originated approximately 90 minutes earlier from Corona, California. A flight plan had not been filed. The pilot reported to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector that as he approached the airport, the wind was from 255 degrees at about 7 knots. He elected to land on runway 01, and as he touched down, the airplane's left wing rose up, and the right wing and propeller contacted the runway. The airplane cartwheeled, departed the right side of the runway, and came to rest upright. Both wing tips were bent up during the accident. Subsequently, a post accident fire erupted, which consumed the fuselage. The pilot further reported that it was obvious that the crosswind was more that he or the airplane could handle. No mechanical failures or malfunctions were reported. An employee at the airport stated that the pilot called for an airport advisory several minutes before he landed. He reported that at that time the wind was from 220 degrees at 7 knots. Additionally, the pilot said that when he first saw the windsock it appeared to be partially inflated, but as he approached touchdown, the windsock was straight out. Postaccident inspection of the airplane by an FAA inspector confirmed control continuity to all flight control surfaces. The pilot did not submit a National Transportation Safety Board Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report Form 6120.1/2. An airport employee stated that the pilot called for an airport advisory several minutes before he landed. He reported that at that time the wind was from 220 degrees at 7 knots. The pilot reported that as he approached the airport, the wind was from 255 degrees at about 7 knots, a direct crosswind for either runway; therefore, he elected to land on runway 1. The pilot said that while on approach, when he first saw the windsock, it appeared to be partially inflated, but as he approached touchdown the windsock was straight out. After the airplane touched down, the left wing rose up and the right wing and propeller contacted the runway. The airplane cartwheeled, departed the right side of the runway, and came to rest upright. Both wing tips were bent up during the accident. Subsequently, a fire erupted, which consumed the fuselage. Postaccident inspection of the airplane confirmed control continuity to all flight control surfaces. The pilot also reported that it was obvious that the crosswind was more than he or the airplane could handle and that there were no mechanical failures or malfunctions. 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).
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Contributed to outcome
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Contributed to outcome
- 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-Pilot - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2010_WPR10LA312.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). 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 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗