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CEN20CA340

2020-08-08 · Englewood, Colorado, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport APA

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot misjudged the landing flare which resulted in a loss of control and a hard bounced landing.

Factual narrative

The student pilot was on a local solo flight when he misjudged the landing flare and the airplane ballooned before it landed hard on the runway. The student pilot stated that the airplane bounced at least 3 times, with each subsequent bounce harder than the previous bounce. The student pilot reported that he eventually lost directional control of the airplane before it came to a stop in the grass area beside the runway. The airplane’s lower fuselage structure was buckled resulting in substantial damage. The student pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions 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.

  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Incorrect use/operation
  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_CEN20CA340.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). All research papers