NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR12LA444
Registry · N320ME
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 172S
Year of manufacture
2000 · 12 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING I0360 SER (180 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20000907
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A36F68
Registrant of record
CALL THE BALL AVIATION LLC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's inadequate flare and compensation for gusting wind conditions, which resulted in a bounced landing.
Factual narrative
On April 26, 2012, about 1330 mountain standard time, a Cessna 172S, N320ME, sustained substantial damage following a hard landing at the Glendale Municipal Airport, Glendale, Arizona. The commercial pilot and passenger were not injured. The airplane was registered to Air Safety Ventures, and operated by the pilot as a visual flight rules (VFR) local personal flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the flight that originated from Glendale at 1155. The pilot was landing in gusting wind conditions and reported that he encountered a wind shear during the landing flare on runway 19. The airplane bounced and he applied corrective actions; however, the airplane touched down a second time, on its nose wheel, which resulted in substantial damage to the firewall. The wind conditions during the timeframe of the accident were from 200 degrees at 14 knots with gusts to 24 knots. The pilot reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that he was landing the airplane in gusting wind conditions and encountered windshear during the landing flare. After landing hard, the airplane bounced, and the pilot applied corrective actions; however, the airplane touched down a second time, on its nosewheel, which resulted in substantial damage to the firewall. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action performance-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Response/compensation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2012_WPR12LA444.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 (wind shear). 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
Optimal recovery from microburst wind shear
The flight path of a twin-jet transport aircraft is optimized in a microburst encounter during approach to landing. The objective is to execute an escape maneuver that maintains safe ground clearance …
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR)
An Examination of Aviation Accidents Associated with Turbulence, Wind Shear and Thunderstorm
The focal point of the study reported here was the definition and examination of turbulence, wind shear and thunderstorm in relation to aviation accidents.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Analysis of extreme wind shear
New methods utilizing extreme value statistical theory are applied in the analysis of the largest wind component shear in a wind profile as a function of shear layer thickness and season.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM)
Probabilities of zero wind shear phenomena based on Rawinsonde data records
Probabilities of zero wind shear occurence and depth based on rawinsonde data records
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR)
A Wind Shear Mechanism for Producing Sporadic E by Concentrating Minor Meteoric Ions
Wind shear mechanism for producing sporadic E layer by concentrating minor meteoric ions
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM)
Some aspects of wind shear in the upper atmosphere
Hydrodynamic turbulence and wind shear in upper atmosphere
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗