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ERA11CA227

2011-04-02 · Factoryville, Pennsylvania, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport 9N3

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's inadequate flare during the gusty crosswind landing, which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

According to the pilot, he approached runway 4 once and performed a go-around due to the wind conditions. The second approach to the runway was higher than usual; therefore, the pilot increased the rate of descent in order to land in the crosswind and gusting conditions. The airplane impacted the runway and bounced, then veered off the side of the runway, and came to rest in the reverse direction of travel. The accident sequence resulted in substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. The pilot reported there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane. The winds reported at an airport 15 miles south of the accident location, about the time of the accident, were from 330 degrees at 10 knots, gusting to 16 knots. According to the pilot, he approached runway 4 once and performed a go-around due to the wind conditions. The second approach to the runway was higher than usual; therefore, the pilot increased the rate of descent in order to land in the crosswind and gusting wind conditions. The airplane impacted the runway and bounced, veered off the side of the runway, and came to rest in the reverse direction of travel. The accident sequence resulted in substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. The pilot reported there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane. The wind reported at an airport 15 miles south of the accident location, about the time of the accident, was from 330 degrees at 10 knots, gusting to 16 knots. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
  • F Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation - F
  • F Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on operation - F

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2011_ERA11CA227.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). All research papers