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Atlas / NTSB / ERA24LA113

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA24LA113

2024-02-13 Melbourne, Florida, United States Airport · MLB None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N650FT

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-28-181

Year of manufacture

2013 · 11 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING O-360-A4M (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20130430

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A88D49

Registrant of record

FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot receiving instruction’s failure to correctly identify the runway centerline prior to initiating the nighttime takeoff, which resulted in a collision with a runway edge light and subsequent runway excursion. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor's inadequate monitoring of the pilot.

Factual narrative

The pilot receiving instruction reported that after receiving clearance from the control tower to take off, he taxied onto the runway during nighttime conditions. As the airplane proceeded along the center of the taxiway, he mistook the right runway edge line for the runway centerline and attempted to take off. During the takeoff roll, the airplane impacted a runway edge light, and went into the grass area adjacent to the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the horizontal stabilator and the right wing during the accident. The pilot and the flight instructor reported there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions 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).

  • Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Identification/recognition-Student/instructed pilot
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Light condition-Dark-Response/compensation
  • Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring other person-Instructor/check pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_ERA24LA113.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 ↗