NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Cessna 172 pilot reported a violent wake turbulence encounter on short final at SNA that resulted in an inflight upset with recovery accomplished within 50 feet of the ground.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
Sequencing and separation of aircraft are notoriously tight with the volume of traffic into the airport (SNA). Landing aircraft landed longer than usual on Runway 20R and winds were blowing wake turbulence towards Runway 20L. Approximately 100 feet above ground we encountered what was presumably violent wake turbulence. I thought I had given adequate altitude, distance, and time separation, but it required immediate evasive recovery action. Aircraft rolled over 45 degrees to the right and nose down. Leveling using full left deflection, recovering pitch, and applying full power, aircraft was easily less than 50 ft from the ground. Executed go-around with uneventful landing on second approach. This is my home airport and I've had repeat training on wake turbulence, so I like to think that I'm familiar with the area and hazards, but this was terrifyingly close. I have to wonder if different sequencing should be applied, such as more guidance on go-around criteria or extended legs. On my second approached I flew an extended downwind because another heavy aircraft was landing on the parallel runway. Tower does not provide wake turbulence separation (only states caution), but perhaps a different policy should be considered. I will clearly be applying even more time, altitude, and distance separation in all my future flights, I just hope someone else doesn't encounter the same event with a tragic outcome.
Analyst callback
ASRS analysts occasionally follow up with reporters by phone. These are the paraphrased additional notes from those conversations.
Reporter stated that high volume of traffic at SNA frequently results in tight sequencing that increases the possibility of wake encounters.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Environment - Non Weather Related · Procedure
- Primary Problem
- Procedure
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.