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Atlas / NTSB / MIA98LA138

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MIA98LA138

1998-04-20 LAKELAND, Florida, United States Airport · LAL Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during landing flare/touchdown.

Factual narrative

On April 20, 1998, at about 1350 eastern daylight time, a Kaas Express, N12EX, experimental airplane, operating as a 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight, experienced a loss of directional control during the landing flare, and crashed on landing at the Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport, Lakeland, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane sustained substantial damage. The commercial pilot reported minor injuries. The flight originated from Ocala Municipal Airport, Ocala, Florida, about 30 minutes before the accident. The pilot stated he applied power during his round out on landing in an effort to remain in ground effect over the runway. His airplane was gaining on another airplane to his front. As he applied power, the airplane veered to the left off the left side of the runway. The airplane experienced a loss of directional control, collided with a ramp sign, taxiway light, bounced over an intersection, touched down in the grass left of the runway, and slid into a ditch. An engine fire ensued, and was extinguished by emergency response personnel. The pilot stated he applied power during his round out on landing in an effort to remain in ground effect. His airplane was gaining on another airplane to his front. As he added power the airplane veered to the left off the left side of the runway. The airplane experienced a loss of directional control, collided with a ramp sign, taxi way light, bounced over an intersection, touched down in the grass, slid into a ditch, and a postcrash fire ensued. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1998_MIA98LA138.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. 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 ↗