NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA20CA222
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The student pilot's decision to continue from visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in a collision with trees and mountainous terrain.
Factual narrative
The student pilot and his passenger departed on a visual flight rules cross country flight and entered instrument meteorological conditions. The pilot decided to continue climbing, and when the airplane exited the clouds, the student pilot saw the top of a mountain and trees directly in front of him. He “stalled” the airplane to reduce speed and the airplane impacted trees at a speed of about 60 knots before it descended to the ground. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings, but the student pilot and the passenger were uninjured. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane what would have precluded normal operation. The pilot further stated that he made a mistake and took full responsibility for the accident. 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-Student/instructed pilot - C
- C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Ceiling/visibility/precip-Clouds-Decision related to condition - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_ERA20CA222.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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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.
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Automating Bird Diverter Installation through Multi-Aerial Robots and Signal Temporal Logic Specifications
This paper tackles the task assignment and trajectory generation problem for bird diverter installation using a fleet of multi-rotors.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Variation of Critical Crystallization Pressure for the Formation of Square Ice in Graphene Nanocapillaries
Two-dimensional square ice in graphene nanocapillaries at room temperature is a fascinating phenomenon and has been confirmed experimentally.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Polycrystallinity enhances stress build-up around ice
Damage caused by freezing wet, porous materials is a widespread problem, but is hard to predict or control. Here, we show that polycrystallinity makes a great difference to the stress build-up process…
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint
Enhanced Prediction of Three-dimensional Finite Iced Wing Separated Flow Near Stall
Icing on three-dimensional wings causes severe flow separation near stall. Standard improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) is unable to correctly predict the separating reattaching flow due…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2021 · Journal article (JAAER)
Analysis on the Negative Emotional, Physiological, and Cognitive Responses Elicited from of the Activation of a Stall Alarm
Failing to identify an aerodynamic stall can lead to the inability of an aircraft to sustain flight. To warn pilots of an impending or fully-developed stall, many aircraft have safety devices installe…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗