NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ANC21LA021
Registry · N7054K
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
PIPER PA-20
Year of manufacture
1950 · 71 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING 0-290 SERIES (140 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19560528
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A96A0F
Registrant of record
PEHOSKI JOSEPH R
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during takeoff in gusty tailwind conditions, which resulted in a runway excursion and nose down.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that, during takeoff in the tailwheel-equipped airplane, he had about a 3-knot tailwind. When the airplane was at about 40 mph indicated airspeed, he applied forward pressure to the control yoke, and as the tail lifted off the ground the airplane encountered a gust of wind. Subsequently, the airplane veered abruptly to the left, he overcorrected, and the airplane exited the left side of the runway and impacted a snow berm coming to rest nose down. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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).
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Effect on operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2021_ANC21LA021.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 (runway excursion). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Runway Excursion — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary runway excursion review — RE-OE (overruns) + RE-LO (lateral). Risk drivers: long landing, high approach speed, contaminated surface, tailwind, mis-set autobrakes.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2019 · Accident report
Embraer ERJ 175 Runway Excursion at Charlotte Douglas
Republic Airline ERJ-175 runway excursion CLT, January 2018. Examines a low-energy runway excursion involving misuse of autobrakes + thrust reverser response after a high-crosswind landing on a contam…
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Presentation
Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Conference Paper
Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- Flight Safety Foundation 2024 · FSF / AeroSafety World
Runway Safety Initiative Final Report (RSI)
Foundation Runway Safety Initiative final report — comprehensive analysis of runway excursion + incursion risk drivers worldwide.
- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article
Towards online prediction of safety-critical landing metrics in aviation using supervised machine learning
Abstract In recent years, due to the increased availability of data and improvements in computing power, application of machine learning techniques to various aviation safety problems for identifying,…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗