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Atlas / NTSB / WPR20CA287

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR20CA287

2020-08-22 Tok, Alaska, United States Airport · PFTO None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N7468D

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-18A 150

Year of manufacture

1957 · 63 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

1 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19581125

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AA0C48

Registrant of record

PINE GEORGE D

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing, which resulted in a runway excursion and subsequent impact with trees.

Factual narrative

The student pilot in the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that while on final approach, the airplane drifted off runway centerline and she tried to recenter the airplane prior to touchdown. The airplane touched down and veered right, exited the runway and impacted trees. Both wings were substantially damaged. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions 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).

  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot
  • Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Contributed to outcome

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_WPR20CA287.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 (runway excursion). 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 ↗