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NYC91LA082

1991-03-05 · GLENS FALLS, New York, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport GFL

N98RL has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (CESSNA 208B, built 2018), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

A LOSS OF CONTROL ON THE GROUND DUE TO THE IMPROPER OPERATION OF FLIGHT CONTROLS BY THE PILOT. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE VARIABLE WIND.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT FLEW FOR ABOUT 40 MINUTES. WHILE IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN THE WIND SOCK SHOWED THE WIND WAS FROM 350 DEGREES. HE RECEIVED A UNICOM ADVISORY THAT THE FAVORED RUNWAY WAS 01. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN, THE LEFT WING RAISED AND THE PILOT APPLIED LEFT AILERON AND RIGHT RUDDER. THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED TO VEER LEFT AND TIP TO THE RIGHT DESPITE COUNTER CONTROLS. THE RIGHT WING HIT, THEN THE AIRPLANE FLIPPED OVER. AFTER THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER THE WIND SOCK SHOWED THE WIND WAS FROM 210 DEGREES GUSTING TO 20 KNOTS. THE MAXIMUM CROSSWIND COMPONENT FOR THE PITTS SPECIAL IS TWENTY-THREE KNOTS. BETWEEN 1340 TO 1540 FREQUENT MODERATE AND ISOLATED SEVERE TURBULENCE BELOW 8000 FEET WITH LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR WAS FORECAST ON A LINE FROM MONTREAL TO NANTUCKET. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_NYC91LA082.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 (wind shear, loss of control, turbulence). All research papers