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CEN20LA436

2020-08-30 · Hartford, Wisconsin, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport HXF

Current FAA registration · N88204

Make / Model
PIPER J3C-65
Engine
CONT MOTOR C90-12F (95 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20200518
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S AC27B8

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s loss of situation awareness which resulted in landing in a grass area and the subsequent collision with a runway marker.

Factual narrative

The pilot planned a personal flight to a nearby airport that had recently added new runways. Before the flight, his flight instructor sent him an airport diagram with the new grass runway marked, which was parallel to an asphalt runway. After the pilot reviewed the diagram, he thought he knew where to expect the new grass runway. While in the traffic pattern at the destination airport, the pilot noticed a large open grass space below him, so he landed the airplane. The pilot landed to the east but thought he had landed to the west. The area that he landed on was not the grass runway; while completing a fast taxi, the airplane collided with a runway marker for the north-south runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing spar. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Identification/recognition-Pilot
  • — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Sign/marker-Decision related to condition

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_CEN20LA436.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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