CEN23LA222 · Pitts S-2S
Welkin Aero Pitts S-2S · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) during landing
From Central Nebraska Regional Airport (GRI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN23LA222
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Pitts S-2S
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S-2
- 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
- N1PW
- Operator
- Welkin Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Central Nebraska Regional Airport (GRI), Grand Island, NETo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1979)
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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 systems
- 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
During the landing roll on a grass runway, the airplane decelerated quicker than the pilot expected, pulled to the right, and nosed over which resulted in a ground loop. The right lower wing and right elevator were substantially damaged during the ground loop. Postaccident examination of the airplane showed that the right main landing gear wheel inner tube and tire was likely flat prior to landing due to an undetected cut in the inner tube. The flat tire resulted in wheel pant fairing to contact the grass runway and the airplane became uncontrollable. Following the accident, the inner tube was inflated by the pilot and an audible leak was observed from the cut rubber area. The pilot reported that the tube was replaced during last the condition inspection, and it was unknown what caused the cut in the inner tube.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inability to maintain directional control during landing roll due to a flat tire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN23LA222
- Event ID
- 20230605192302
- Case number
- CEN23LA222
- 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, cause areas. 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: 94954801e8d530541ba40f3e5012b9b6226520afc9249a691c40d5b9de5237b6; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:41:04.112Z.