WPR22LA147
2022-04-06 · Tuscon, Arizona, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport RYN
Current FAA registration · N733EJ
- Make / Model
- CESSNA 172N
- Year of manufacture
- 1976 · 46 years old at event
- Engine
- LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 4 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19761213
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A9D69D
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The loss of directional control during the landing roll, due to missing hardware which resulted in the separation of the nose landing gear torque links.
Factual narrative
The pilot of the airplane reported that, during the landing roll the airplane veered left unexpectedly. The pilot applied corrective action with rudder input, but the airplane continued to veer left, exited the left side of the runway, impacted a ditch, and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right-wing lift strut, vertical stabilizer and rudder. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that, the bolt, spacer, nut and cotter pin connecting the upper torque link and the lower torque link was missing and not observed with the wreckage. It further revealed that the upper and lower torque links were not damaged. Damage to the nose gear and the right main gear was consistent with impact damage when the airplane exited the runway and impacted a ditch. A review of the airplane maintenance records did not reveal any recent maintenance conducted on the nose landing gear torque links. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
- — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Misc hardware-Fasteners-Incorrect service/maintenance
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2022_WPR22LA147.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
- Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗
- Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗
- AVweb Aviation press ↗
- Pilots of America Community ↗
- Reddit /r/flying Community ↗
- FlightAware Aviation press ↗
- AOPA accident database Aviation press ↗
- Google News News ↗
- DuckDuckGo News ↗
Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (maintenance). All research papers
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA) From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- Semantic Scholar 2026 · Article (Reliability Engineering & System Safety) Understanding human error in military aviation maintenance: The role of Performance shaping factors, cognitive workload and error orientation
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences) Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Semantic Scholar 2024 · Article (Defence Science Journal) Modelling of Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance Using HFACS ME Human Factors Analysis and Classification System Maintenance Extension and Bayesian Network
Aircraft maintenance is a complex task involving a skilled human workforce, spare parts, and various other resources. Human factors are an inherent element of the human workforce.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER) A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER) Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…