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Atlas / NTSB / ERA20CA083

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA20CA083

2020-01-18 Wauchula, Florida, United States Airport · CHN Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N4283V

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

KITFOX KITFOX III

Engine

BOMBARDIER ROTAX (ALL)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20000828

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A51C2C

Registrant of record

JOHNSON NEAL R

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's improper landing flare in gusting crosswind conditions, which resulted in a bounced landing, and his subsequent failure to maintain directional control, which resulted in a runway excursion and nose-over.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that he was conducting a crosswind landing on runway 36, in the tailwheel-equipped experimental, amateur-built airplane. The airplane touched down, bounced slightly, settled, and then veered off the right side of the runway. It struck a light, then flipped over in the grass and came to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the rudder and the fuselage forward of the horizontal stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The nearest weather reporting station, located 29 miles east of the airport, reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 110° at 14 knots. The pilot reported that the wind was from 270° at 8 knots gusting to 14 knots. The pilot reported that he was conducting a crosswind landing. The airplane touched down, bounced slightly, settled, and it then veered off the right side of the runway onto grass, struck a light, flipped over, and came to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the rudder and the fuselage forward of the horizontal stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation and that a gusting crosswind existed during the touchdown. 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 Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
  • C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_ERA20CA083.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 (runway excursion). 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 ↗