CEN23LA134
2023-03-05 · Buena Vista, Colorado, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport KAEJ
Current FAA registration · N118CX
- Make / Model
- HONDA AIRCRAFT CO LLC HA-420
- Year of manufacture
- 2022 · 1 years old at event
- Engine
- GE HONDA HF-120
- Seats / Engines
- 8 seats · 2 engines
- Last airworthiness date
- 20220420
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A04A33
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s inability to maintain directional control during landing with a gusting left crosswind resulting in the runway excursion.
Factual narrative
The airplane was coming into the airport to land following a cross-country flight. The pilot reported they checked the weather, entered the current conditions in the Garmin Control Unit, and received the results they expected for the RNAV approach to runway 33. The airport manager came on the radios and reported the winds as 280o at 8 knots, gusting to 19 knots. The crew captured the glidepath before the final approach fix and the co-pilot called out speeds to touchdown, the last being 115 kts. The touchdown was normal, but then the airplane experienced a strong yaw to the left from a wind gust. The pilot attempted to steer the airplane back, but the airplane went off the left side of the runway, struck a taxiway sign, and came to a stop with the nose of the airplane facing the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left inboard wing and lower left fuselage. The crew reported no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. At the time of the accident, the airplane was landing on runway 33 with reported winds 280o at 8 knots with gusts to 24 knots. Following the accident, the company put in place stricter crosswind component limits for its’ fleet of airplanes. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2023_CEN23LA134.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 (runway excursion). All research papers
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article Runway Excursion — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary runway excursion review — RE-OE (overruns) + RE-LO (lateral). Risk drivers: long landing, high approach speed, contaminated surface, tailwind, mis-set autobrakes.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2019 · Accident report Embraer ERJ 175 Runway Excursion at Charlotte Douglas
Republic Airline ERJ-175 runway excursion CLT, January 2018. Examines a low-energy runway excursion involving misuse of autobrakes + thrust reverser response after a high-crosswind landing on a contam…
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Presentation Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Conference Paper Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- Flight Safety Foundation 2024 · FSF / AeroSafety World Runway Safety Initiative Final Report (RSI)
Foundation Runway Safety Initiative final report — comprehensive analysis of runway excursion + incursion risk drivers worldwide.
- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article Towards online prediction of safety-critical landing metrics in aviation using supervised machine learning
Abstract In recent years, due to the increased availability of data and improvements in computing power, application of machine learning techniques to various aviation safety problems for identifying,…