ATL04CA168 · Christen Industries A1B
Christen Industries A1B · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport (EHO) to Wilson's Airport (E40)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04CA168
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Christen Industries A1B
- Aircraft type
- Christen A1
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N367SA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport (EHO), Shelby, NCTo Wilson's Airport (E40), Hickory, NC
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · landing roll
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control on ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he was on a local flight when the engine started to run rough. The pilot elected to make a precautionary landing. During the landing roll the pilot stated that the tail wheel became airborne and he lost directional control. The airplane veered off the right side of the runway. The airplane rolled approximately 20 feet into the grass and collided with a trailer. The pilot stated that during landing roll he encountered wind gusts approximately 13 to 15 knots from approximately 230 degrees. However the 1153 Hickory Regional Airport weather observation facility reported the winds were 210 degrees at 10 knots, no gusts, and 6 statute miles visibility. Examination of the airplane at the wreckage site revealed the left landing gear was separated and the firewall was buckled. Examination of the wreckage at the wreckage site revealed no power plant or flight control problems.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inadequate compensation for wind conditions and his failure to maintain directional control, during landing roll which resulted in a loss of control and collision with a trailer. The crosswind was a factor in the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL04CA168
- Event ID
- 20040830X01307
- Case number
- ATL04CA168
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d80026ef5d7bc93de99aac4bfdc297c53ae27e79d09d60c0392281ff880fcd8e; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:52:27.523Z.