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Atlas / NTSB / CEN12CA576

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN12CA576

2012-08-25 Watkins, Colorado, United States Airport · KFTG None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N215VS

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CIRRUS DESIGN SR20

Year of manufacture

2003 · 9 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR IO-360-ES (210 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20030528

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A1CE01

Registrant of record

BELLUE BARRY LEE

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot did not maintain control of the airplane while landing in gusty wind conditions.

Factual narrative

The pilot was conducting touch-and-go landings on runway 35. While on final approach for his third touch-and-go, the pilot felt a buffet and anticipated gusting wind conditions during the touchdown. Approximately 200 feet above the ground the stall warning horn sounded briefly and the airplane "dropped straight down." The airplane impacted the runway hard and bounced several times. The pilot added power in attempt to go around; however, the airplane did not respond and impacted the runway again in a nose low attitude. During the accident sequence the nose landing gear separated, the propeller was damaged, and the firewall wrinkled. The Federal Aviation Administration inspector who responded stated that there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane. The pilot was conducting touch-and-go landings on runway 35. While on final approach for his third touch-and-go landing, the pilot felt a buffet and anticipated gusting wind conditions during the touchdown. About 200 feet above the ground, the stall warning horn sounded briefly and the airplane "dropped straight down." The airplane impacted the runway hard and bounced several times. The pilot added power in an attempt to go around; however, the airplane did not respond and impacted the runway again in a nose-low attitude. During the accident sequence the nose landing gear separated, the propeller was damaged, and the firewall wrinkled. Postaccident examination revealed no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies 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).

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Windshear-Effect on operation

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2012_CEN12CA576.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗