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NYC04CA198

2004-08-28 · Williamstown, New Jersey, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport C01

Current FAA registration · N524JN

Make / Model
VAN'S AIRCRAFT RV-6A
Year of manufacture
1998 · 6 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20050524
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A6989F

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's improper flare, which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

On August 28, 2004, about 1400 eastern daylight time, a homebuilt RV-6A, N524JN, was substantially damaged while landing at the Southern Cross Airport, Williamstown, New Jersey. The certificated private pilot and a pilot-rated passenger were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan had been filed for the personal flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. The pilot reported he was on approach to runway 27, a 2,400-foot-long, 80-foot-wide, turf runway. He felt that the airplane was too high and too fast, and performed a go-around. During his second approach, everything seemed normal until the airplane settled hard and "dropped" onto the runway. The airplane's empennage struck the ground, the nose gear collapsed, and the airplane flipped over. The passenger reported that the pilot started to flare "a little too high," and the airplane stalled about 10 to 12 feet above the ground. The pilot reported 529 hours of total flight experience, which included about 6 hours in the same make and model as the accident airplane. He did not report any mechanical problems. The airplane was on approach to a 2,400-foot-long, 80-foot-wide, turf runway. The pilot reported that everything seemed normal until the airplane settled hard and "dropped" onto the runway. The airplane's empennage struck the ground, the nose gear collapsed, and the airplane flipped over. A pilot-rated passenger reported that the pilot started to flare "a little too high," and the airplane stalled about 10 to 12 feet above the ground. The pilot did not report any mechanical problems. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2004_NYC04CA198.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, go-around). All research papers