Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control following a descent into clouds.
NTSB Accidents
Pilot’s complacency blamed for gear-up landing
Probable cause: The pilot’s complacency during the en route phase of flight, which resulted in fuel mismanagement and a subsequent gear-up landing.
Bellanca bent when ski hits frozen sand berm
Probable cause: The airplane’s left main ski’s collision with a submerged frozen sand berm.
Maintenance error bends Piper
Probable cause: Maintenance personnel’s improper securing of an unused instrument lamp socket during recent maintenance, which resulted in an electrical short of the landing gear controls and stopped the landing gear while it was transitioning to the down position and led to the landing gear collapse.
First flight after restoration fatal for pilot
Probable cause: The incorrect rigging of the elevator control cables, which resulted in a reversal of elevator control inputs applied by the pilot during the takeoff, an excessive nose-high pitch, and subsequent aerodynamic stall after takeoff. Also causal was the inadequate postmaintenance inspection and the pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection and before takeoff check, which failed to detect the misrigging.
Cub and 172 collide on runway
Probable cause: The pilot’s decision to land on an occupied runway and his failure to see and avoid the other airplane.
Encounter with downburst proves fatal for four
Probable cause: An encounter with a downburst during an instrument approach, which resulted in a loss of control at low altitude. Contributing to the accident was the air traffic controller’s failure to solicit and disseminate pilot reports from
Training flight ends fatally for two
Probable cause: The failure of the pilot receiving instruction to recover from the practice stall before the airplane entered a spin and the flight instructor’s inadequate monitoring of the pilot receiving instruction and delayed remedial a
Pilot ‘simply forgot’ to lower landing gear
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to extend the landing gear before landing.




