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Atlas / NTSB / CHI89LA164

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI89LA164

1989-07-24 MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, United States Airport · MWC None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

STUDENT PILOT'S MISJUDGED AIRCRAFT HANDLING DURING THE LANDING FLARE/TOUCHDOWN, AND THE CFI'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE OPERATION. THESE RESULTED IN AN ABRUPT TOUCHDOWN, A SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL, AND THE AIRCRAFT'S COLLISION WITH THE VASI LIGHT STRUCTURES.

Factual narrative

DURING A DUAL INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, WHILE PRACTICING TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS IN PREPARATION FOR STUDENT SOLO FLIGHT, THE STUDENT PILOT REPORTEDLY FLARED TOO HIGH. THE CFI STATED THAT HE WAITED FOR THE STUDENT TO TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION, BUT THE STUDENT FAILED TO DO SO, AND THE AIRCRAFT CONTACTED THE RUNWAY ABRUPTLY. THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY, AND SKIDDED INTO A VASI LIGHT STRUCTURE BEFORE COMING TO A STOP. THE STUDENT PILOT HAD APPROXIMATELY 25 HOURS OF TOTAL FLIGHT TIME AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_CHI89LA164.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗