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Atlas / NTSB / WPR24LA107

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR24LA107

2024-03-09 Death Valley, California, United States Airport · L06 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N78659

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-11

Engine

CONT MOTOR C90 SERIES (95 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19550812

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AAA9F9

Registrant of record

PEARCE DAVID E JR

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the landing rollout, resulting in a ground loop and runway excursion.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the tailwheel equipped airplane reported that during the landing rollout and as the airplane slowed, rudder inputs became less effective. The airplane began to veer to the left, then departed the left side of the runway and ground looped. The airplane struck a runway sign located approximately 30 ft from the runway, and the fuselage sustained substantial damage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures 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-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_WPR24LA107.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 ↗