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Atlas / NTSB / CEN19TA327

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN19TA327

2019-09-02 Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States Airport · TUL None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N1R

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-60-602P

Year of manufacture

1982 · 37 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING IO-540 SER (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

6 seats · 2 engines

Last airworthiness date

19820824

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A00179

Registrant of record

OTTOPILOT LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's improper landing flare, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and hard landing.

Factual narrative

On September 2, 2019, about 1020 central daylight time, a Piper PA-60 Aerostar airplane, N1R, sustained substantial damage during a hard landing on runway 36L at Tulsa International Airport (TUL), Tulsa, Oklahoma. The pilot and passenger were not injured. The nose landing gear collapsed which resulted in damage to the forward pressure bulkhead. The airplane was registered to CBU Aviation LLC and operated by the pilot as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the airport, and the flight was operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. The flight originated from Rogers Executive Airport (ROG), Rogers, Arkansas, about 0945 and was destined for TUL. The pilot reported flying a normal approach to runway 36L; however, he initiated the landing flare too high. The airplane subsequently stalled and dropped about 10 ft which caused the nose landing gear to collapse. The airplane came to rest on an adjacent taxiway. He had verified that the landing gear was down and locked (three green indicator panel lights) before landing. He stated the accident was "not caused by any apparent mechanical failures." The private pilot reported that he flew a normal approach; however, he initiated the landing flare too high. The airplane subsequently stalled and dropped about 10 ft, which caused the nose landing gear to collapse and damaged the forward pressure bulkhead. The pilot stated that he had verified that the landing gear were down and locked before landing, and reported that the accident was "not caused by any apparent mechanical failures." 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 Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-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_2019_CEN19TA327.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 ↗