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Atlas / NTSB / ERA21LA139

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA21LA139

2021-02-22 Fort Pierce, Florida, United States Airport · FPR None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N885AC

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-28-181

Year of manufacture

2020 · 1 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING O-360-A4M (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20200901

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AC306B

Registrant of record

ARI BEN AVIATOR INC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot under instruction’s improper landing flare and attempted go-around which resulted in an aerodynamic stall, and subsequent loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor’s delayed remedial action.

Factual narrative

The pilot under instruction was undergoing a stage check. On what was to be the last landing, the pilot was to perform a short field landing. As the airplane approached the runway, the pilot initiated the landing flare too high. The stall warning horn annunciated, and the flight instructor instructed the pilot to execute a go around. However, the pilot did not add power, so the flight instructor took over the flight controls, and added full power. The flight instructor tried to recover, but the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall, started turning into the wind, and directional control of the airplane was lost. The airplane then started descending and yawing to the right, and the airplane touched down hard coming to rest on the grass off the right side of the runway. The airplane’s left wing and stabilator were substantially damaged. 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
  • Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Delayed action-Instructor/check pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-(general)-Not attained/maintained
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Aircraft capability-(general)-Capability exceeded

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2021_ERA21LA139.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 or causal vocabulary (stall, loss of control, go-around). 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 ↗