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Atlas / NTSB / ERA10CA257

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA10CA257

2010-05-06 Fort Pierce, Florida, United States Airport · FL37 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during a crosswind landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that he was practicing touch and go landings with the tailwheeled airplane to runway 27. During his seventh landing, the "wind velocity increased and a crosswind developed." As the airplane touched down, it veered to the left and departed the grass runway. The pilot reduced engine power and attempted to regain control; however, the airplane’s left wing impacted a tree, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing. The pilot reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane. A weather observation taken approximately at the time of the accident, 15 miles from the accident site, recorded the wind as 190 degrees at 14 knots. The pilot reported that he was practicing touch and go landings with the tailwheeled airplane to runway 27. During his seventh landing, the "wind velocity increased and a crosswind developed." As the airplane touched down, it veered to the left and departed the grass runway. The pilot reduced engine power and attempted to regain control; however, the airplane’s left wing impacted a tree, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing. The pilot reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane. A weather observation taken approximately at the time of the accident, 15 miles from the accident site, recorded the wind as 190 degrees at 14 knots. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incomplete action-Pilot - C
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2010_ERA10CA257.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 ↗