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Atlas / NTSB / DEN02LA042

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN02LA042

2002-05-11 Monument Valley, Utah, United States Airport · UT25 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N345M

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPISTREL DOO AJDOVSCINA VIRUS SW

Year of manufacture

2014

Engine

ROTAX 912ULS2 (100 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20140521

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A3D0F4

Registrant of record

ROGERS RAYLON R DBA

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

the pilot's inadvertent stall/mush to the ground during landing flare. Contributing factors were the earth berm along the side of the runway, and the wind shear weather condition on short final.

Factual narrative

On May 11, 2002, at approximately 1220 mountain daylight time, a Piper PA-28-140B, N345M, was substantially damaged following impact with terrain subsequent to an inadvertent stall/mush at Monument Valley Airport, Monument Valley, Utah. The private pilot and his passenger were not injured. The pilot was operating the airplane under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the cross-country flight that originated from Chandler Municipal Airport, Chandler, Arizona, at 1013. The pilot had not filed a flight plan. The pilot said that he researched the airport before his flight. He was aware of the normal procedures regarding carrying more airspeed and placing the aircraft "firmly" on the runway. He arrived at the destination 2-3 hours after the planned arrival time. At approximately 50 feet above ground level, the airplane experienced a significant loss in air speed due to a "sudden wind shift/shear." The aircraft was moved approximately 50 feet to the right and impacted an earth berm. The nose wheel landing gear collapsed aft, and the engine mount, engine firewall, cowling and fuselage were bent. The pilot said that he arrived at his destination 2-3 hours after the planned arrival time. At approximately 50 feet above ground level the airplane experienced a significant loss in air speed due to a "sudden wind shift/shear." The aircraft was moved approximately 50 feet to the right and impacted an earth berm. The nose wheel landing gear collapsed aft, and the engine mount, engine firewall, cowling and fuselage were bent. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2002_DEN02LA042.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 (wind shear, stall). 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 ↗