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Atlas / NTSB / WPR21LA346

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR21LA346

2021-09-15 Palouse, Washington, United States Airport · WN26 Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3977G

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

VAN'S AIRCRAFT RV-6A

Year of manufacture

2011 · 10 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING O-320-H2AD (160 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20120511

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A4A01E

Registrant of record

SINOR DELBERT

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's improper landing flare, which resulted in a bounced landing and subsequent nose over.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that, during the first landing for the instrument proficiency check flight, a go-around was initiated. During the second landing attempt, at an airspeed of 70 knots, the airplane touched down and bounced. The airplane bounced multiple times as it continued down the runway and subsequently nosed over resulting in substantial damage to the wings and vertical stabilizer. The 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).

  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained
  • Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2021_WPR21LA346.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 (go-around). 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 ↗