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Atlas / NTSB / CEN14CA018

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN14CA018

2013-10-13 Telluride, Colorado, United States Airport · TEX None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N26RG

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH A36

Year of manufacture

1987 · 26 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR IO-550 SERIES (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

6 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19870902

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A27E22

Registrant of record

PLANE FUN INC TR TRUSTEE

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's decision to take off in gusting tailwinds resulting in exceeding the performance capabilities of the airplane and subsequent loss of control.

Factual narrative

The pilot stated the reported winds near his departure time were 140 degrees at 24 knots, and he elected to depart from runway 27. During climb out, shortly after he rotated, the airplane weathervaned hard to the left and the stall warning horn sounded. The pilot felt a strong gust of wind as he attempted to clear rising terrain, and thought he encountered a strong down draft or rotor, followed by the airplane impacting terrain. Wind recorded five minutes before the accident was from 130 degrees at 15 knots, gusting to 29 knots. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operations. The pilot stated the reported winds near his departure time were 140 degrees at 24 knots, and he elected to depart from runway 27. During climb out, shortly after he rotated, the airplane weathervaned hard to the left and the stall warning horn sounded. The pilot felt a strong gust of wind as he attempted to clear rising terrain, and thought he encountered a strong down draft or rotor, followed by the airplane impacting terrain. Wind recorded five minutes before the accident was from 130 degrees at 15 knots, gusting to 29 knots. 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).

  • F Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot - F
  • F Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Decision related to condition - F
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Contributed to outcome
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Capability exceeded
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2013_CEN14CA018.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, loss of control). 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 ↗