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Atlas / NTSB / WPR23LA209

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR23LA209

2023-05-30 Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States Airport · SAF Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N69PV

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPISTREL DOO AJDOVSCINA VIRUS SW

Engine

ROTAX 912ULS2 (100 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20151210

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A929B6

Registrant of record

BERGAMINI EMANUELE

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

An encounter with a downdraft during landing that resulted in a hard landing and the pilot’s loss of control.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that he experienced severe turbulence within about 10 miles of the airport as he was approaching to land. He further reported that during the landing, the airplane encountered a downdraft and bounced on touchdown. The airplane exited the runway to the left onto an adjacent grass area and nosed over, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing. The pilot reported there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation during landing. 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-Landing flare-Capability exceeded
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-(general)-(general)-Effect on operation
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Descent rate-Attain/maintain not possible

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_WPR23LA209.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 (loss of control, turbulence). 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 ↗