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CEN23LA013

2022-10-11 · Sterling, Colorado, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport KSTK

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain control during the takeoff with strong gusty surface wind.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that he had just purchased the airplane. During the second takeoff the airplane encountered a “violent variable wind gust”; the left wing rose unexpectedly, and the airplane stalled. The pilot reported that there was not enough altitude to recover and the airplane impacted the ground, which resulted in substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. At the time of takeoff, wind was reported as 250° at 23 knots, gusting to 30 knots. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Contributed to outcome
  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Ability to respond/compensate
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Capability exceeded

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2022_CEN23LA013.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 (stall). All research papers