NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ANC20CA034
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The student pilot's failure to avoid wake turbulence while landing behind a heavy jet airplane, which resulted in a loss of roll control and subsequent hard landing.
Factual narrative
The solo student pilot reported that, while in the airport traffic pattern, she was instructed by air traffic control to follow a heavy jet airplane. She located the heavy jet airplane and confirmed with tower she was cleared to land number two, with a caution for wake turbulence. As she maintained a final approach to land "past the numbers" and prepared for the landing flare, the wings suddenly rolled right, and the nose dropped. She attempted to correct, but the airplane landed hard, skidded off the runway, and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing, lift struts, and empennage. The solo student pilot reported that, while in the airport traffic pattern, the air traffic tower controller instructed her to follow a heavy jet airplane. She saw the heavy jet airplane and confirmed it with the tower controller who then cleared the pilot to land behind the heavy jet and provided a caution for wake turbulence. As she maintained a final approach to land "past the numbers" and prepared for the landing flare, the wings suddenly rolled right, and the nose dropped. She attempted to correct, but the airplane landed hard, skidded off the runway, and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing, lift struts, and empennage. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot - C
- C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Lack of action-Student/instructed pilot - C
- C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Turbulence-Wake turbulence-Effect on operation - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Lateral/bank control-Not attained/maintained - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_ANC20CA034.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (wake turbulence, turbulence). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Crash Testing and Simulation of a Cessna 172 Aircraft: Pitch Down Impact Onto Soft Soil
During the summer of 2015, NASA Langley Research Center conducted three full-scale crash tests of Cessna 172 (C-172) aircraft at the NASA Langley Landing and Impact Research (LandIR) Facility.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM)
Simulating the Impact Response of Three Full-Scale Crash Tests of Cessna 172 Aircraft
During the summer of 2015, a series of three full-scale crash tests were performed at the Landing and Impact Research Facility located at NASA Langley Research Center of Cessna 172 aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Aircraft wake turbulence minimization by aerodynamic means
The paper reviews NASA's efforts on wake vortex turbulence minimization by aerodynamic design or retrofit modifications to large transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Arrivals (WTMA)
The preliminary Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Arrivals (WTMA) concept of operations is described in this paper. The WTMA concept provides further detail to work initiated by the Wake Vortex Avoidance…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Aircraft wake turbulence avoidance
Aircraft wake turbulence /trailing vortex systems/ avoidance during flight, describing procedures for pilots and tower operators
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Aircraft wake turbulence progress and plans
Aircraft wake turbulence and trailing vortices, investigating physical characteristics, hazard potential and avoidance techniques
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗