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WPR21LA054

2020-11-13 · Sierra Vista, Arizona, United States · Unknown · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport FHU

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s incorrect automated landing profile selection, which resulted in an impact with a runway trench. Contributing to the accident was the pilot receiving instruction's and instructor's failure to spot the incorrect landing profile selection during prelanding checks.

Factual narrative

The Operations Supervisor reported that the instructional flight with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was programmed for a single takeoff and traffic pattern to a full-stop landing. During the pre-landing checks, the pilot under instruction selected the incorrect landing profile, which did not account for the current runway displaced threshold because of runway construction. Shortly before touchdown, the pilot initiated a go-around but the landing gear impacted a runway trench, and subsequently the UAV impacted the ground. A post-crash fire ensued and the UAV was destroyed. The supervisor added that neither the instructor pilot nor the pilot receiving instruction spotted the incorrect selection during the pre-landing checks. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Identification/recognition-Pilot
  • — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action selection-Pilot
  • — Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring other person-Instructor/check pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_WPR21LA054.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). All research papers