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Atlas / NTSB / WPR23LA152

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR23LA152

2023-04-05 Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States Airport · KLAM None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N444M

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

GRUMMAN G-44A

Engine

FAIRCHILD 6-440 SERIES (200 hp)

Seats / Engines

5 seats · 2 engines

Last airworthiness date

19601107

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A55A8C

Registrant of record

TRIPLE 4 MIKE LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot receiving instruction’s failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff roll, resulting in a runway excursion and ground collision.

Factual narrative

Both pilots reported that during the takeoff roll, the pilot receiving instruction lost directional control of the airplane and it veered off the runway. The airplane subsequently collided with a parked unoccupied airplane. The left horizontal stabilizer and elevator sustained substantial damaged. The flight instructor reported that the airplane was not equipped with brakes at the right seat position. Both pilots reported that there were no preaccident 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).

  • 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

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_WPR23LA152.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 ↗