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Atlas / NTSB / ERA24LA005

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA24LA005

2023-10-07 Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States Airport · SHD None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N13BF

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

AVIAT AIRCRAFT INC A-1C-180

Year of manufacture

2008 · 15 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING O-360-A1P (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20090310

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A078F7

Registrant of record

WYGANT STEVEN J

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s inadequate compensation for the prevailing wind conditions, which resulted in a loss of control and subsequent runway excursion.

Factual narrative

The pilot was returning to his home airport, and prior to landing, he received an automated weather briefing noting a 90-degree crosswind that was from 320 degrees at 12 knots, with gusts. The runway in use was runway 05, and a preceding aircraft reported a direct crosswind. The initial approach and landing were uneventful. When the airplane touched down and all three wheels were on the ground, an unexpected gust of wind lifted the left wing and started pushing the airplane towards the right. The airplane exited the runway into the grass. The wind then lifted the tail of the airplane and it nosed over onto the vertical stabilizer. The fuselage and empennage of the airplane were substantially damaged. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with 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).

  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Response/compensation
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_ERA24LA005.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 ↗