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River sandbar landing goes awry

By NTSB · March 30, 2022 ·

According to the pilot, he was conducting an off-airport landing to a river sandbar near Mack, Colorado, when he noticed wires in his approach path.

He pushed forward on the CubCrafters CC11-160’s stick to lower the nose and avoid the wires, however the plane touched down in the river just short of the sand bar and nosed over.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing strut.

The pilot reported that the accident could have been avoided if he had reconnoitered the area for obstacles before beginning the approach.

Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to reconnoiter the approach area in preparation for an off-airport landing on a sandbar, which necessitated an evasive maneuver to avoid wires and resulted in an unintentional landing in the river short of the sandbar and a subsequent nose-over.

NTSB Identification: 101055

To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.

This March 2020 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.

About NTSB

The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant events in the other modes of transportation, including railroad, transit, highway, marine, pipeline, and commercial space. It determines the probable causes of accidents and issues safety recommendations aimed at preventing future occurrences.

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Comments

  1. Chris Martin says

    March 31, 2022 at 6:05 am

    According to my insurance broker, it is becoming more and more difficult to insure small airplanes like mine. Wonder why?

    Keep the YouTube videos rolling!

    • k p couch says

      March 31, 2022 at 11:17 am

      I doubt recovery and repairs to this Cub will be covered by any insurance…Im not aware of any coverage for off airport operations

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