NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR16LA109
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's loss of directional control during the landing roll, which resulted in a runway excursion.
Factual narrative
On May 13, 2016, about 1415 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 172RG airplane, N6281V, sustained substantial damage following a loss of control and runway excursion at the North Las Vegas Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada. The commercial pilot was not injured. The airplane was registered to Black Ridge Partners, LLC and was operated by the pilot as a personal flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no Federal Aviation Administration flight plan had been filed for the flight. The pilot reported that following a normal touch down in variable gusty wind conditions, while braking to slow to taxi speed, the airplane veered slightly to the left, and she corrected with right rudder. Then while braking again, the airplane veered to the left, and did not react to brake or rudder control inputs. Subsequently, the airplane exited the left side of the runway and struck a runway distance remaining sign, resulting in substantial damage to the left wing and left horizontal stabilizer. Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airframe or landing gear components that would have precluded normal operation. The commercial pilot reported that, during the landing roll following a normal touchdown in variable, gusting wind conditions, the airplane veered slightly to the left as she applied brakes, and she corrected with right rudder. She applied brakes a second time, and the airplane again veered left but did not respond to brake or rudder control inputs. The airplane exited the left side of the runway and struck a runway distance remaining sign, resulting in substantial damage to the left wing and left horizontal stabilizer. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airframe or landing gear components that would have precluded normal operation. Given the lack of mechanical anomalies found, it is likely that the pilot lost control of the airplane during the landing roll. 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
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Variable wind-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2016_WPR16LA109.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 or causal vocabulary (loss of control, runway excursion). 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 2017 · Conference paper
Energy Safety Management: Mitigating Loss of Control Inflight
Under the new Airman Certification Standards (ACS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has mandated for the first time that private and commercial pilot candidates demonstrate understanding of …
- 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.
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Runway Excursion — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary runway excursion review — RE-OE (overruns) + RE-LO (lateral). Risk drivers: long landing, high approach speed, contaminated surface, tailwind, mis-set autobrakes.
- 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…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗