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Atlas / NTSB / WPR13CA165

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR13CA165

2013-03-23 Bellingham, Washington, United States Airport · BLI None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor's delayed remedial action.

Factual narrative

The flight instructor reported that following a wheel landing in the tail-wheel equipped airplane by the pilot receiving instruction, the airplane began to drift left of the centerline. The pilot receiving instruction applied right rudder control inputs and the airplane veered to the right. Despite the flight instructor's control inputs to regain control, the airplane continued to the right and subsequently ground looped. The left wing and horizontal stabilizer struck the ground, which resulted in structural damage to the left horizontal stabilizer. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The flight instructor reported that the pilot receiving instruction conducted a wheel landing in the tailwheel-equipped airplane, and the airplane began to drift left of the centerline. The pilot receiving instruction applied right rudder control inputs, and the airplane veered to the right. Despite the flight instructor's control inputs to regain control, the airplane continued to the right and subsequently ground looped. The left wing and horizontal stabilizer struck the ground, which resulted in structural damage to the left horizontal stabilizer. . The flight instructor reported no preimpact 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).

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
  • F Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring other person-Instructor/check pilot - F

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2013_WPR13CA165.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. 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 ↗