NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA17CA157
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's improper landing flare, which resulted in a hard landing and subsequent nose-over.
Factual narrative
The commercial pilot, who was also the owner of the experimental light-sport airplane stated that the airplane approached the grass strip with "all systems operating correctly," he performed a side slip to lose altitude and align the airplane with the field. The airplane descended "very quickly," and at touchdown the nose landing gear dug in, collapsed, and the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector witnessed the accident, and a video of the accident was posted on a local media website. The inspector's description and the landing depicted in the video was consistent with the pilot's description of events. The airplane landed hard in a flat attitude, the nose landing gear collapsed immediately, and the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. The commercial pilot, who was also the owner of the experimental, light-sport airplane, stated that the airplane approached the grass strip with "all systems operating correctly" and that he performed a side slip to lose altitude and align the airplane with the field. The airplane descended "very quickly," and at touchdown, the nose landing gear dug in and collapsed, and the airplane then nosed over and came to rest inverted. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector witnessed the accident, and a video of the accident was posted on a local media website. The inspector's description and the landing shown in the video were consistent with the pilot's description of events. The airplane landed hard in a flat attitude, the nose landing gear collapsed immediately, and the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. 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-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Runway/land/takeoff/taxi surface-Soft surface-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2017_ERA17CA157.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.