CEN17LA367 · Miller Steven M RV6 A
Miller Steven M RV6 A · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From La Junta Municipal Airport (LHX) to Kelly Air Park (CO15)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17LA367
- 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
Miller Steven M RV6 A
- Aircraft type
- Miller Steven RV6
- 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
- N812SM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From La Junta Municipal Airport (LHX), LaJunta, COTo Kelly Air Park (CO15), Elbert, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2002)
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that he was conducting a personal, cross-country flight and that, when he was about 5 miles from his destination airport, he checked the AWOS, which reported wind from 280° at 24 knots, gusting to 32 knots. He checked the AWOS again while entering the base leg for runway 27, and the reported wind had not changed. Upon turning to final, the pilot felt strong wind and added power to stay higher than a normal approach. With flaps set to 40°, the pilot decreased power and started to flare the airplane. The wheels hit the runway hard, the airplane bounced, and a wind gust pushed the airplane left off the runway. After the airplane bounced again, the pilot added power and attempted a go-around. Subsequently, the airplane again exited the left side of the runway and struck a cistern and a fence and then came to rest inverted. Based on the evidence, it is likely that the pilot improperly flared the airplane in strong gusting wind conditions, which resulted in the airplane bouncing and the subsequent loss of directional control.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper landing flare in strong gusting wind conditions, which resulted in a bounced landing, and his loss of directional control during an attempted go-around, which resulted in a runway excursion and impact with objects.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17LA367
- Event ID
- 20170926X14008
- Case number
- CEN17LA367
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: a6af31cdcd7b388410be5e0c530ed943a7e6992b8cd39fa9c2d943342dc37882; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:53:14.684Z.