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ERA25LA074

2024-11-13 · Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport F45

Current FAA registration · N6294C

Make / Model
PIPER PA-28-181
Year of manufacture
1978 · 46 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING O&VO-360 SER (180 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19780201
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A83A93

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during landing in a gusting crosswind, which resulted in a hard landing and runway excursion.

Factual narrative

The pilot was practicing touch-and-go landings at his base airport. While on his first approach to landing, the pilot reported that the wind was very gusty and that the gusts were “stronger than anticipated.” Just before touchdown, a gust of wind pushed the airplane to the right side of the runway. The airplane landed hard and, the nose gear collapsed., and The airplane then went off the side of the runway and into a ditch. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the tubular engine mounts and cockpit floor. The pilot reported there were no anomalies or mechanical failures that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane and that it “was nothing but a bad landing due to a surprising downdraft and too low to recover.” Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

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

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_ERA25LA074.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing, runway excursion). All research papers