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CEN13CA247

2013-04-27 · Owatonna, Minnesota, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport OWA

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s loss of directional control during an aborted landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that the he was conducting practice instrument approaches under visual flight rules with a safety pilot at the time of the accident. After the fourth approach, they elected to land instead of conducting an instrument approach. The safety pilot assumed control of the airplane so that the pilot could prepare for landing. The airplane ended up on a “very close-in base leg” that resulted in the airplane being high on final approach. The pilot took control of the airplane from the safety pilot and elected to continue the landing. The pilot reported that the conditions, including a strong right crosswind, resulted in the airplane touching down on the left side of the runway. The pilot elected to execute a go-around and applied full engine power. The airplane did not respond as expected and it made an unintended left turn, subsequently impacting the ground in the grass area adjacent to the runway. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or malfunctions associated with the airplane prior to the accident. In addition, a postaccident examination conducted by Federal Aviation Administration inspectors did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction. The pilot reported that the he was conducting practice instrument approaches under visual flight rules with a safety pilot at the time of the accident. After the fourth approach, they elected to land the airplane. The safety pilot assumed control of the airplane so that the pilot could prepare for landing. The airplane ended up on a “very close-in base leg” that resulted in the airplane being high on final approach. The pilot took control of the airplane from the safety pilot and elected to continue the landing. The pilot reported that the conditions, including a right crosswind, resulted in the airplane touching down on the left side of the runway. The pilot elected to execute a go-around and applied full engine power. The airplane subsequently made an unintended left turn and impacted the grassy area adjacent to the runway, substantially damaging the left wing. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or malfunctions associated with the airplane before the accident. In addition, postaccident examination did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2013_CEN13CA247.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). All research papers