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Atlas / NTSB / ERA23LA088

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA23LA088

2022-12-10 Alabaster, Alabama, United States Airport · EET None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N5301G

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 305A

Year of manufacture

1952 · 70 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19730328

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A6B2EF

Registrant of record

BARNARD JORGE A

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

Failure of the tailwheel locking mechanism, which resulted in a loss of control during landing and a runway excursion.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the vintage tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that he made a three-point landing on the runway centerline, aligned with the runway, in light wind. Upon touchdown, the airplane swerved left. The pilot attempted to correct with right rudder and brake application; however, the airplane departed the left side of the runway and ground looped, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing and empennage. The pilot examined the tailwheel after the accident and noted that its locking mechanism had failed. Specifically, he believed that the spindle or brass thrust ring had failed internally. 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 systems-Landing gear system-Nose/tail landing gear-Failure
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2022_ERA23LA088.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 (loss of control, 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 ↗