20230401008269A

On April 01, 2023, just after 13:21 pacific standard time, U.S. Registered aircraft, located in Santa Ana California experienced severe turbulence while attempting to land on 20R at Orange county airport (sna). The aircraft was on final and was being conducted under 14 CFR part 91 and VFR conditions prevailed.

There were two soles onboard, flight instructor, private pilot license, airplane single engine land, instrument airplane, commercial certificate and certifided flight instructor (CFI) and a student pilot, neither pilot nor student sustained any injuries. There are no records of pilot enforcement history on the pilot or the student pilot.

Pilot statement: my student and I were conducting a training flight on April 1, 2023. We went up to practice his takeoff and landings for an upcoming first solo. On our first lap around the traffic pattern, tower advices us of wake turbulence from an arriving 737 approaching the parallel runway. We continued with the normal precautionary measures as to fly above the glide path, with four white lights being visible from the PAPI, airspeed was indicating 70 KIAS. The airliner touched down approximately 20 seconds before our planned touchdown. I observed the windsock indicating a moderate right quartering headwind. We continued to about 100 feet above the ground when we encounter the wake turbulence, and our airplane banked sharply to the right. My student inputted an immediate correction with left aileron, but the plane continued to bank right. When I observed the plane exceed about 20 degrees of bank, I got my own hands on the controls only to find it was already deflected fully to the left. The plane did not respond to our left aileron input and continued towards the ground with an increasing descent rate in about a 45-degree bank at this point. I suspected that there had been some sort of malfunction of the ailerons, so in order to prevent a high-speed impact with the ground, I introduced back pressure. The plane’s descent rate is reduced, and we essentially enter a steep turn maneuver at about 10 feet above the ground. We turned roughly 90 degrees from the original approach heading, when I introduced left rudder in an attempt to slow the turn and pulled the throttle to idle in an attempt to get the airplane on the ground. We crossed directly above the threshold of the parallel runway (20R), and I believe this is where the right-wing tip impacts the ground. Rather than the plane cartwheeling, the wings are assisted back toward wings level and shortly after, the right main gear touched down as well. The wings were then brought completely level, and the plane was traveling across the dirt zone that precedes each runway on the approach end. We had lost enough airspeed through this sequence for the plane to start settling onto the ground. We bounced a few times and traveled across about 1000 feet of dirt before coming to a stop on a 010 heading. The propeller never made contact with anything more than grass, so it continued to run until I pulled the mixture to idle cutoff. I contacted tower to advise them that we were uninjured. I continued to shut off all engine and electrical systems. We stayed in the plane, for about 3 minutes until a first responder approached us. My student and I discussed the events that just happened, and he stated that he made an input to try to fight the wake turbulence, but the plane did not respond accordingly. He claimed he felt a sort of, “snapping feeling” at the yoke.

From the time we first encountered the wake turbulence.

Suggest ops/faasteam counseling on wake turbulence.

Linked task T-WP05-FY23-0252.