Cessna 172N N6410F accident near Stonington, Maine

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during a crosswind landing.

NTSB analysis

According to the pilot, as he flared the airplane for a crosswind landing to runway 25, he encountered a gust of wind. The airplane bounced once on the runway and veered left and right several times before the pilot was "unable to redirect the aircraft back" as it veered off the right side of the runway, into grass which sloped down to a drainage ditch. The pilot attempted to recover the airplane for "several hundred feet," before the right main landing gear got caught in higher grass and mud, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane. He further reported 888 hours of total flight time, including 857 hours in the make and model of the accident airplane. A weather report issued around the time of the accident, at an airport about 19 miles to the southwest, included winds from 290 at 12 knots, gusting to 15 knots.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA10CA381 for the full record.