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ERA21LA094

2020-12-29 · Stowe, Pennsylvania, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport N47

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's loss of directional control while landing in a gusty crosswind, which resulted in a runway excursion and subsequent impact with terrain.

Factual narrative

The private pilot was landing the tricycle landing gear equipped airplane with a significant gusting right crosswind. After establishing the airplane on a 1-mile final approach to the runway, the pilot initiated a sideslip to maintain runway centerline. After touching down about 800 feet beyond the runway threshold, a gust of wind struck the airplane and it veered off the runway. The airplane crossed a taxiway then struck a concrete culvert before flipping over and coming to rest inverted. The pilot stated that once the aircraft veered left, he could not recover. Both of the airplane’s wings and the empennage were substantially damaged during the accident. 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

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on operation
  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation
  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_ERA21LA094.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

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