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Atlas / NTSB / SEA94LA139

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event SEA94LA139

1994-06-03 MELBA, Idaho, United States Airport · ID40 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE REMEDIAL ACTION, AND HIS EXCESSIVE BRAKE APPLICATION. FACTORS INCLUDE IMPROPER RECOVERY FROM A BOUNCED LANDING, AND A CROSSWIND.

Factual narrative

On June 3, 1994, approximately 1745 mountain daylight time (MDT), a tailwheel equipped Piper PA-22, N2926Z, flipped over during a landing attempt at Sunrise Sky Park, Melba, Idaho. The private pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, was not injured, but the airplane sustained substantial damage. The personal pleasure flight, which departed Caldwell, Idaho approximately 1645 MDT, was in visual meteorological conditions at the time of the accident. No flight plan had been filed, and the ELT, which was activated by the accident, was turned off at the scene. According to the pilot, the airplane bounced during a full-stall landing, and when he attempted to continue the landing sequence, he ran off the side of the runway. While attempting to bring the aircraft back onto the runway, the pilot realized he might impact a nearby residence. He therefore started braking hard in order to stop. During the brake application, the aircraft flipped over. The pilot said that there were variable crosswinds at the time of the accident. WHILE ATTEMPTING TO RECOVER FROM A BOUNCED, FULL-STALL LANDING, THE PILOT ALLOWED THE AIRCRAFT TO DRIFT OFF THE SIDE OF THE RUNWAY. THINKING THAT HE MIGHT COLLIDE WITH A NEARBY RESIDENCE, THE PILOT STARTED BRAKING HARD IN ORDER TO STOP. HIS EXCESSIVE BRAKE APPLICATION RESULTED IN THE AIRCRAFT FLIPPING OVER. THE PILOT SAID THERE WERE VARIABLE CROSSWINDS AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1994_SEA94LA139.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 ↗