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Atlas / NTSB / GAA19CA537

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event GAA19CA537

2019-08-30 Murrieta, California, United States Airport · F70 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N117BF

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CZECH SPORT AIRCRAFT A S SPORTCRUISER

Year of manufacture

2017 · 2 years old at event

Engine

ROTAX 912ULS SERIES (100 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20171214

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A04653

Registrant of record

SKYWEST LEASING INC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot's improper landing flare, which resulted in a bounced landing, and his subsequent loss of directional control and a hard landing.

Factual narrative

The solo student pilot reported that his second approach for landing was low and when he flared, the wheels contacted the runway and the airplane bounced. The student pilot did not want to stall the airplane, so he pitched the nose down to level the airplane and the airplane bounced again, drifted and exited the runway to the left. Subsequently, the airplane landed hard and the nose landing gear collapsed. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mount. The airplane operator reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The solo student pilot reported that his second approach for landing was low and that, when he flared, the wheels contacted the runway, and the airplane bounced. The student did not want to stall the airplane, so he pitched the nose down to level it, but it bounced again, drifted left, exited the runway, landed hard, and the nose landing gear collapsed. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mount. The operator reported that 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).

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2019_GAA19CA537.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 (stall). 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 ↗