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CEN20CA112

2020-03-03 · Madison, Indiana, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport IMS

N5815E has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (DJI AGRAS T100), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The flight instructor's failure to maintain directional control during landing in gusting crosswind conditions, which resulted in a runway excursion and nose-over.

Factual narrative

According to the flight instructor, during the third approach, he took the controls and informed the student that he would land the airplane. The airplane was configured with "minimal flaps" due to the gusting crosswind conditions. The instructor reported that during landing, the wind shifted from a quartering headwind, to a direct crosswind. The airplane bounced on touchdown and subsequently exited the right side of the runway. It entered the soft mud surface and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing lift strut. The METAR at the accident airport reported that about the time of the accident, the wind was from 260° at 17 knots and gusting to 25 knots. The airplane landed on runway 21. According to the flight instructor, during the third approach, he took the controls from the student pilot and informed the student that he would land the airplane. The airplane was configured with "minimal flaps" due to gusting crosswind conditions. During landing, the wind shifted from a quartering headwind to a direct crosswind. The airplane bounced on touchdown and subsequently exited the right side of the runway, entered soft mud, and then nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left-wing lift strut. The instructor stated 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

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Instructor/check pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on operation - C
  • C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_CEN20CA112.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 (runway excursion). All research papers