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Atlas / NTSB / ERA20LA323

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA20LA323

2020-09-18 Hollywood, Florida, United States Airport · HWO None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N234ME

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 182S

Year of manufacture

2000 · 20 years old at event

TCDS

3A13 · TEXTRON AVIATION INC

Engine

LYCOMING IO-540 SER (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20000628

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A21874

Registrant of record

SANFILIPPO JOSEPH J

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during a crosswind takeoff, which resulted in a collision with airport lights and a sign.

Factual narrative

The pilot was departing on a cross country flight. Immediately after liftoff the nose of the airplane veered left. The pilot attempted to correct for the crosswind but was unsuccessful and the airplane struck runway lights and a sign resulting in substantial damage to the right horizontal stabilizer and elevator. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of 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).

  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Response/compensation
  • Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Sign/marker-Contributed to outcome
  • Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Runway/taxi/approach light-Contributed to outcome

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_ERA20LA323.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. 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 ↗