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Atlas / NTSB / ERA21LA151

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA21LA151

2021-03-09 Augusta, Maine, United States Airport · AUG None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3839J

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH C24R

Year of manufacture

1981 · 40 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-A1B6 (200 hp)

Seats / Engines

6 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19810313

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A46A0B

Registrant of record

WHEELER & AREY PA

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s improper landing flare, which resulted in a bounced landing, and a subsequent runway excursion. Also causal was the flight instructor’s delayed remedial action.

Factual narrative

The pilot was performing a practice power off 180° landing with his flight instructor onboard. While on short final approach to the runway the airplane’s bank angle was about 20° when the pilot entered the landing flare. The airplane dropped to the runway from a height about 5 ft and bounced. The flight instructor then assumed control of the airplane and increased engine power to full. The airplane departed the side of the runway but was not traveling fast enough to climb and it crossed a taxiway and another runway before coming to rest in the runway safety area. The left horizontal stabilizer was substantially damaged during the accident sequence. 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).

  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Delayed action-Instructor/check pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2021_ERA21LA151.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 (runway excursion). 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 ↗