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Atlas / NTSB / WPR11CA196

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR11CA196

2011-04-13 Palouse, Washington, United States Airport · WN26 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's inadequate evaluation of the wind conditions at takeoff and failure to maintain an adequate airspeed, which resulted in a stall and collision with terrain during the initial climb.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that the engine ran fine during run up and takeoff, and the airplane was within weight and balance limitations. The departure runway had an upslope, and there was rising terrain in the departure corridor. Witnesses reported a light tail wind at the time of departure. The airplane got airborne, but began to settle. The pilot pitched the nose up to try and fly over the terrain at the end of the runway, but the airplane stalled into the terrain about 500 feet past the departure end. The airplane nosed over inverted and the airframe and wings sustained substantial damage. The pilot reported that the engine ran fine during the run-up inspection and takeoff, and the airplane was within weight and balance limitations. The departure runway had an upslope, there was rising terrain in the departure corridor, and witnesses reported a light tailwind at the time of departure. Shortly after the airplane lifted from the runway, it began to settle. The pilot pitched the nose up to try and fly over the terrain at the end of the runway, but the airplane stalled into the terrain about 500 feet past the departure end. The airplane nosed over inverted and the airframe and wings sustained substantial damage. 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-Angle of attack-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action selection-Pilot - C
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Effect on operation
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Response/compensation
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2011_WPR11CA196.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 ↗