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Atlas / NTSB / ERA11CA193

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA11CA193

2011-03-08 Pittstown, New Jersey, United States Airport · N40 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot's inadequate flare and the certified flight instructor's inadequate remedial action, which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

According to the flight instructor, the purpose of the flight was to practice landings. As the student pilot began to flare for landing, the airspeed decreased and the airplane "stall[ed] about 3 to 5 feet above the ground," impacted the runway "hard" on the right main landing gear, and bounced. The student pilot applied full power, the airplane veered off the right side of the runway, traveled up an embankment, and the left wing impacted the ground. During the accident sequence, the airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing tip and fuselage. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the airplane prior to the accident. According to the certified flight instructor (CFI), the purpose of the flight was for the student pilot to practice landings. As the student began to flare for landing, the airspeed decreased and the airplane stalled about 3 to 5 feet above the ground. The airplane impacted the runway hard on the right main landing gear and bounced. The student pilot applied full engine power and the airplane veered off the right side of the runway, traveled up an embankment, and the left wing impacted the ground. During the accident sequence, the airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and fuselage. The CFI reported no preimpact mechanical anomalies with the airplane. 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-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Lack of action-Instructor/check pilot - C
  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action performance-Student pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2011_ERA11CA193.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 (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 ↗