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ERA23LA213

2023-04-13 · West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport AGC

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot’s improper landing flare, and the flight instructor’s delayed remedial action, which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

The student pilot reported that at about 8 to 10 ft above the ground the flight instructor shouted “FLARE, FLARE, FLARE!” The volume and intensity of the command startled the student pilot who pulled back sharply on the yoke and the airplane stalled. The flight instructor subsequently took control of the airplane and before he could take corrective action the airplane impacted the ground resulting in substantial damage to the lower fuselage. The flight instructor’s account of the event was similar to the student pilot’s. The operator reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with 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-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained
  • — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Delayed action-Instructor/check pilot
  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_ERA23LA213.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

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