NTSB ERA25LA042 — 2024-11-08 · Cleveland, Georgia, United States

Current FAA registration · N69LM

Make / Model: VAN'S AIRCRAFT RV-8A
Year of manufacture: 2008 · 16 years old at event
Engine: LYCOMING O-360-A1A (180 hp)
Seats / Engines: 2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date: 20081221
ADS-B equipped: Yes — Mode-S A92963

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N69LM Vans RV8-A Minor

Probable cause & findings

A nose landing gear collapse on landing and subsequent nose over.

Factual narrative

After completing a local flight, the pilot recalled the direction of landing required a steep descent during the final approach due to tall trees at the approach end of the runway. The pilot otherwise did not recall any of the details of the accident following the short final segment of the landing approach. A witness described, and surveillance video confirmed, that the airplane touched down, experienced a “very short” bounce, and then impacted the turf runway nose landing gear first, resulting in the nose landing gear collapsing and the airplane nosing over. The airplane’s fuselage, empennage, and right wing sustained substantial damage during the accident sequence. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

— Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Landing gear system-Nose/tail landing gear-Failure

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_ERA25LA042.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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