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Atlas / NTSB / WPR11CA440

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR11CA440

2011-09-08 Phoenix, Arizona, United States Airport · DVT None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N5275S

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172S

Year of manufacture

2002 · 9 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20021031

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A6A607

Registrant of record

75S LEASING LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll.

Factual narrative

According to the pilot, while in the traffic pattern he heard another pilot request a wind check and the control tower responded 190 degrees at 10 knots. The pilot reported that the airplane landed on all three landing gear and he input aileron for wind correction. On the landing roll out, the airplane suddenly made a 90-degree turn and the pilot stated that he was not able to regain control of the airplane. The pilot stated that there were no mechanical problems with the airplane. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors responded to the site and reported that the airplane hit a runway sign and light damaging the left elevator. According to the pilot, after landing he applied aileron input to compensate for the wind. During the landing roll, the airplane suddenly made a 90-degree turn and the pilot was not able to regain control of the airplane. The pilot stated that there were no mechanical problems with the airplane. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that it struck a runway sign and light, damaging the left 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 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_2011_WPR11CA440.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. 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 ↗