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ERA20CA256

2020-07-19 · Wellington, Florida, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport FD38

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s inadequate compensation for a wind gust during landing.

Factual narrative

During a local flight, the pilot reported that the wind at the airport was light and variable. After flying a normal traffic pattern, she crossed the runway threshold on final approach and reduced the power to land. Upon touchdown, the airplane “was hit by a strong gust of wind.” The airplane then pitched up to a “very high nose up attitude.” The stall warning horn activated and the pilot attempted to recover; however, the airplane impacted the runway in a nose low attitude, seriously injuring the pilot and substantially damaging to the forward portion of the airplane’s fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Response/compensation
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Not attained/maintained

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_ERA20CA256.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers