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Atlas / NTSB / WPR12CA196

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR12CA196

2012-05-05 Heber-Overgaard, Arizona, United States Airport · AZ82 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3442V

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 195

Year of manufacture

1948 · 64 years old at event

Engine

JACOBS R-755A2 (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

5 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19480611

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A3CEDC

Registrant of record

ADAMS RICHARD J

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's loss of directional control during takeoff roll upon encountering a wind gust.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that on takeoff roll just after the tail came up he encountered a right quartering tail wind gust, which forced the airplane off of the left side of the runway. The pilot subsequently corrected back to the right but crossed the runway, a gully and a taxiway. He then intentionally applied right brake and ground looped the airplane to avoid colliding with a hangar, which resulted in the collapse of both main landing gear. A post crash fire erupted shortly thereafter, which consumed the airplane. The pilot reported that, on takeoff roll, just after the tail came up, the airplane encountered a right quartering tailwind gust, which forced the airplane off the left side of the runway. The pilot subsequently corrected back to the right, and the airplane crossed the runway, a gully, and a taxiway. He then intentionally applied right brake and ground looped the airplane to avoid colliding with a hangar, which resulted in the collapse of both main landing gears. A postcrash fire erupted shortly thereafter, which consumed the airplane. 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
  • C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Response/compensation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2012_WPR12CA196.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 ↗