NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA20CA156
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's improper decision to land on unsuitable terrain, which resulted in a nose-over.
Factual narrative
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that, upon completion of the landing roll on a grass area adjacent to an asphalt runway, the main landing gear dug into an area of soft grass and the airplane nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, vertical stabilizer and rudder. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that, after completing the landing roll on a grassy area adjacent to an asphalt runway, the main landing gear dug into an area of soft grass, and the airplane nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, vertical stabilizer, and rudder. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot - C
- C Environmental issues-Physical environment-Runway/land/takeoff/taxi surface-Soft surface-Effect on equipment - C
- C Environmental issues-Physical environment-Runway/land/takeoff/taxi surface-Soft surface-Decision related to condition - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_ERA20CA156.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.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Visual Heading Prediction for Autonomous Aerial Vehicles
The integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) is increasingly central to the development of intelligent autonomous systems for applications such as search and …
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
FalconWing: An Ultra-Light Indoor Fixed-Wing UAV Platform for Vision-Based Autonomy
We introduce FalconWing, an ultra-light (150 g) indoor fixed-wing UAV platform for vision-based autonomy. Controlled indoor environment enables year-round repeatable UAV experiment but imposes strict …
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
Enhanced Equivalent Circuit Model for High Current Discharge of Lithium-Ion Batteries with Application to Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft
Conventional battery equivalent circuit models (ECMs) have limited capability to predict performance at high discharge rates, where lithium depleted regions may develop and cause a sudden exponential …
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Conference paper
A Double Taboo? An Exploratory Study of Mental Health Perceptions amongst Black Aerospace Professionals
This exploratory study delves into the often-overlooked realm of mental health perceptions among Black aerospace professionals, shedding light on a double taboo within a historically stigmatized indus…
- Semantic Scholar 2023 · Article (AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum)
The Impact of Multi-Stack Fuel Cell Configurations on Electrical Architecture for a Zero Emission Regional Aircraft
All-electric aircraft can eliminate greenhouse gas emissions during aircraft mission, but the low predicted energy storage density of batteries (=0.5 kWh/kg), and their life cycle, limits aircraft pay…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2022 · Conference paper
Creating the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals: Creating Diversity in the Next Generation
Covid-19, mandatory retirement age, the 1500 Hour ATP rule and lack of future aviation professionals has lead to a global industry crisis.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗