CEN18LA172 · Wittman D R/Wittman D M RV 6
Wittman D R/Wittman D M RV 6 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From H.A. Clark Memorial Field (CMR) to Hutchinson County Airport (BGD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA172
- 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
Wittman D R/Wittman D M RV 6
- Aircraft type
- Wittman D R/wittman RV-6
- 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
- N833DW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From H.A. Clark Memorial Field (CMR), Williams, AZTo Hutchinson County Airport (BGD), Borger, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2003)
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot stated that, during approach to the airport, the weather observation system reported variable winds of 4 to 6 knots, which was less than forecast. While on short final approach for landing to runway 21, the pilot experienced "strong updrafts from unusual landforms," and when the airplane landed about halfway down the runway, he experienced "strong gusts causing swerving." The airplane was departing the side of the runway when the pilot chose to abort the landing by applying full engine power. The airplane was unable to outclimb the rising terrain off the side of the runway and subsequently impacted the ground and a fence.
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. A review of recorded weather information showed winds consistently from 220° at 23 to 32 knots, which would have resulted in a crosswind component of between 2 and 6 knots. The strong updrafts the pilot experienced would have been consistent with mechanical turbulence, which could have been confirmed by wind indications from the airport windsock(s).
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control during landing and during the subsequent aborted landing attempt in crosswind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA172
- Event ID
- 20180511X03906
- Case number
- CEN18LA172
- 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, coordinates. 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: 637700709e3d3f69796c45cfbcee690ecc47734921bc2d9d59aa87834296c992; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:08:55.059Z.