NTSB CEN24LA054 — 2023-11-26 · Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States

Current FAA registration · N475CW

Make / Model: CESSNA 560XL
Year of manufacture: 2000 · 23 years old at event
Engine: P&W CANADA PW545 SER
Seats / Engines: 13 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date: 20000523
ADS-B equipped: Yes — Mode-S A5D3F4

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N475CW Cessna 560XL None

Probable cause & findings

An in-flight collision with a bird during decent.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that while descending through a cloud layer, a crewmember saw a flock of birds and alerted the pilot. The pilot reported that he disconnected the autopilot and attempted to avoid the birds. The birds impacted the airplane which resulted in substantial damage to the left horizontal stabilizer. The crew made an uneventful landing following the bird strike Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

— Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Animal(s)/bird(s)-Effect on equipment
— Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Animal(s)/bird(s)-Response/compensation

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_CEN24LA054.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 (autopilot). All research papers