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Atlas / NTSB / WPR23LA210

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR23LA210

2023-06-03 Prescott, Arizona, United States Airport · PRC None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N249K

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172S

Year of manufacture

2022 · 1 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20220519

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A2524F

Registrant of record

FF22 LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s improper landing flare, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was his delayed decision to initiate a go-around.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that, during a discovery flight, he allowed the passenger to assume control of the airplane and guided her through various maneuvers. The passenger remained in control until reaching short final of the landing. The pilot noticed that the approach was slow and steep, prompting him to take control. He executed an early round-out maneuver and flare, but realized the airplane was too high and was responding poorly, leading him to initiate a go-around procedure. Right before he could increase the power, the left wing experienced an aerodynamic stall and dropped, resulting in contact with the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing. The pilot 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-Landing flare-Incorrect use/operation
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot
  • Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Identification/recognition-Pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Not attained/maintained

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_WPR23LA210.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 (stall, 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 ↗