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Atlas / NTSB / WPR21LA042

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR21LA042

2020-11-09 Mesa, Arizona, United States Airport · FFZ Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N4117H

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

DIAMOND AIRCRAFT DA 40

Year of manufacture

2008 · 12 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-M1A+ (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20080516

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A4DB2C

Registrant of record

TACTICAL INTEGRATED TRAINING SOLUTIONS LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance with a vehicle while taxiing.

Factual narrative

The student pilot reported that while taxiing to the runup area he stopped when he noticed a construction vehicle was in close proximity to the taxiway. After he assessed the situation and felt that he had enough room to taxi around the vehicle on the left, he continued to taxi. However, while maneuvering around the vehicle he misjudged the clearance, and the right wing was substantially damaged when it collided with the vehicle. The student reported that there were no 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).

  • Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring environment-Student/instructed pilot
  • Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Ground vehicle-Not specified

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_WPR21LA042.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 ↗