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Atlas / NTSB / WPR13CA153

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR13CA153

2013-03-18 Bountiful, Utah, United States Airport · BTF None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control during the landing flare in tailwind conditions, which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that during landing in the tail-wheel equipped airplane, rough air was encountered on approach and the airplane landed hard and bounced. The airplane subsequently came to rest inverted substantially damaging the wings and fuselage. At the time of the accident, the airplane was landing with a right quartering tail wind of 10 knots, gusting to 14 knots. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that during the landing approach in the tailwheel-equipped airplane, he encountered rough air, and the airplane landed hard and bounced. The airplane subsequently came to rest inverted, substantially damaging the wings and fuselage. At the time of the accident, the airplane was landing with a right quartering tailwind of 10 knots, gusting to 14 knots. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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).

  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Contributed to outcome
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2013_WPR13CA153.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.