NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN20CA062
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot receiving instruction’s misunderstanding of the flight instructor’s instruction and the pilot's and the instructor’s insufficient use of rudder while adding power to the operating engine, which resulted in the airplane rolling left and the wing striking the ground. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor's delayed remedial action.
Factual narrative
The pilot and flight instructor had completed about two hours of multi-engine flight training and were performing a "zero thrust, single engine" full stop landing. A sink rate developed on final approach and the flight instructor told the pilot to "add a small amount of power to the right operating engine." The pilot misunderstood the instruction as "abort" and added full power to the right engine to abort the landing. The airplane rolled left and the flight instructor added right rudder to arrest the roll. The left wing hit the ground and the airplane rotated left on the ground, substantially damaging the airplane's left wing and collapsing the three landing gear. Neither pilot was injured. There were no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot receiving instruction and flight instructor were performing a zero-thrust, single-engine, full-stop landing when a sink rate developed on final approach. Subsequently, the instructor told the pilot to "add a small amount of power to the right operating engine." The pilot misunderstood the instruction as "abort" and added full power to the right engine to abort the landing. The airplane rolled left, and the instructor added right rudder to arrest the roll. The left wing hit the ground; the airplane rotated left, which resulted in substantial damage to the left wing; and the landing gear collapsed. The instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures 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).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Communication (personnel)-Interpretation/understanding-Student/instructed pilot
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Student/instructed pilot
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Lateral/bank control-Not attained/maintained
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Student/instructed pilot
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Instructor/check pilot
- C Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Flight control system-Rudder control system-Incorrect use/operation
- F Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Delayed action-Instructor/check pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_CEN20CA062.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2018 · Accident report
Atlas Air Flight 3591 Boeing 767 Loss of Control (preliminary)
Atlas Air 3591 / Boeing 767-300 / Trinity Bay TX (Feb 23 2019) — preliminary. Preliminary investigation findings; superseded by the AAR-21/01 final report.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2021 · Accident report
Crash of Atlas Air Flight 3591, Boeing 767-300 (N1217A)
Atlas Air 3591 crashed into Trinity Bay, Texas, February 23, 2019. Investigation of the in-flight loss-of-control crash of Atlas Air 3591 into Trinity Bay, Texas.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint
eVTOL Aircraft Energy Overhead Estimation under Conflict Resolution in High-Density Airspaces
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft operating in high-density urban airspace must maintain safe separation through tactical conflict resolution, yet the energy cost of such maneuver…
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint
Kalman Filtering Based Flight Management System Modeling for AAM Aircraft
Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) operations require strategic flight planning services that predict both spatial and temporal uncertainties to safely validate flight plans against hazards such as weathe…
- NASA NTRS 2024 · Presentation
The Impact of Controlled Rest on Neurobehavioral Outcomes at Top-of-Descent
INTRODUCTION: Long and irregular working hours can lead to fatigue in aviation operations. In some regions, a short nap taken on the flight deck (known as controlled rest) can be used as a countermeas…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Comparative Analysis of School Choice Factors Influencing Non-Collegiate Flight School Selections Between Groups of Nontraditional, Traditional, and Teenage Student Pilots
To assist with exploring strategies for effectively promoting vocational noncollegiate flight schools to diverse student markets of nontraditional student pilots, traditional student pilots, and teena…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗