CEN21LA186
2021-02-28 · Aspen, Colorado, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport ASE
Current FAA registration · N6962S
- Make / Model
- PIPER PA 46-350P
- Year of manufacture
- 2000 · 21 years old at event
- Engine
- LYCOMING TIO 540 SER (250 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 6 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 20000403
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A943AF
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control on landing.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that during landing when the airplane’s nose landing gear contacted the runway the airplane veered “very sharply” to the left. The pilot attempted to correct using the rudder and brakes; however, the airplane departed the side of the runway and slid over ice and snow. The pilot then steered the airplane back towards the runway, but as he did the airplane collided with a runway light. The nose wheel landing gear collapsed, and the airplane came to a stop. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mount. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector who responded to the scene reported that a postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operations. The FAA inspector later reported that during the airplane’s repair, no anomalies were detected which would have contributed to a loss of directional control. The pilot reported 56 hours in make and model and 246 total hours. It is unknown if his experience level contributed to the loss of control. 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-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Runway/taxi/approach light-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2021_CEN21LA186.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.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
- Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗
- Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗
- AVweb Aviation press ↗
- Pilots of America Community ↗
- Reddit /r/flying Community ↗
- FlightAware Aviation press ↗
- AOPA accident database Aviation press ↗
- Google News News ↗
- DuckDuckGo News ↗
Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). All research papers
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER) A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- Semantic Scholar 2024 · Article (International Conference on Networking and Services) Risk Assessment of Loss of Control In-Flight Trajectories for Urban Air Mobility Safety
In Urban Air Mobility (UAM), maintaining a minimum separation between aircraft is a safety requirement, which becomes challenging amidst congested air traffic and off-nominal conditions, such as Loss …
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation) ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.