- Date
- August 8, 2025, 15:00 local (20:00 UTC)
- Place
- Memphis, TN · On Airport Surface
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N1950CCessna 195
- Defining event
- Landing-landing roll: Landing gear collapse
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 30, 2026
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250808011619A
- Case key
- 200767
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Failure of the left main landing gear due to the loss of the protective paint coating and a change in the local surface finish from impermissible grinding, which resulted in fatigue cracking.
Findings · 4
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot reported that during the landing roll at about 15 mph the airplane veered to the right. He applied left rudder and left brake to correct for the veer, but the left main landing gear collapsed. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the lower fuselage and left wing. Examination of the left main landing gear by the NTSB Materials Laboratory revealed that it fractured due to the loss of its protective paint coating and alteration of the local surface finish, likely caused by impermissible surface grinding, which led to intergranular attack and subsequent fatigue cracking.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N1950C
- Reported as
- Cessna 195 (B)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 16183
- Built
- 1954
- Engine
- Jacobs R755, 275 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 15, 2025
- Departed
- TUP · Tupelo, MS
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- MEM · Memphis Intl, runway 18L, 9,000 × 150 ft, concrete
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Auto-pilot, Handheld GPS, Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 55
- Injuries
- Minor
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine sea, Multi-engine land, Single-engine land, Multi-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- August 26, 2024
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 15,873 total · 1,289 in this make and model · 79 in the last 90 days · 16 in the last 30 days · 0.6 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 8 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 11,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 77 °F, dew point 72 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.02 inHg
- Observed at
- MEM, 1 nm away
- METAR
- KMEM 082154Z 09009KT 8SM -RA FEW070 BKN110 25/22 A3002 RMK AO2 TSE53 SLP161 P0005 T02500222 $
Docket · 5
The files NTSB released with the investigation on April 30, 2026, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 6.8 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.