ATL96LA080
1996-04-14 · ENTERPRISE, Alabama, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport EDN
N23298 has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (NANCHANG CHINA CJ-6, built 1982), which was not involved in this event.
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
failure of the pilot to maintain directional control of the airplane during a go-around. A factor relating to the accident was: improper flare by the pilot during the landing.
Factual narrative
On April 14, 1996 about 1630 central daylight time, a Cessna 150H, N23298, collided with a tree while executing a go-around to Enterprise Municipal Airport, Enterprise, Alabama. The airplane was operated by Buck's Flying Service under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91 and visual flight rules. No flight plan had been filed for the local, solo flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The pilot received minor injuries and the airplane was substantially damaged. The flight had departed from Enterprise Municipal Airport at 1600. The flight instructor stated that he had been teaching the student touch and go landings that day. The flight instructor got out of the airplane, so the student could do his second solo flight. According to the FAA Inspector, the pilot holds a commercial pilot certificate in helicopters and was beginning his fixed wing training. The airplane ballooned on touchdown, and a go-around was executed. A witness stated that he saw "the mishap aircraft sidestep to the right side of the runway and impact the trees in a nose high, right wing slightly low, attitude." The wreckage was located about 200 feet from the side of runway 23, and 1,000 feet past the approach end of the runway. The right wing tip was separated, and was laying about 20 feet from the left wing. The left wing had almost broken off, and was displaced slightly forward of the normal position. The right wing leading edge indicated signature marks of striking a tree, verified by tree tops laying on the ground. The master switch was in the off position, and the ELT had been deactivated. The throttle was in the retarded position, and the mixture was in idle cut off. The pilot was performing the second solo flight in his training to add an airplane rating to his commercial helicopter certificate. During a touch-and-go landing on runway 23, the airplane ballooned, and the pilot initiated a go-around. As the airplane became airborne, it turned to the right, then collided with a tree about 200 from the side of the runway. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1996_ATL96LA080.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). All research papers
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Conference Paper A Training Study to Improve Monitoring During A Go-Around
As part of an FAA program to improve go-around (GA) safety, we were asked to determine if we could improve the performance of the Pilot Monitoring (PM) during a GA maneuver.
- Flight Safety Foundation 2024 · FSF / AeroSafety World Go-Around Safety Forum Findings
Foundation Go-Around Safety Forum technical findings — examines why pilots fail to execute go-arounds when criteria are met (stabilized approach gate not met, energy state out of envelope, traffic con…
- Semantic Scholar 2022 · Article (Journal of Safety Research) Go-around accidents and general aviation safety.
INTRODUCTION Changes in General Aviation (GA) accident rates, specifically in the go-around phase, are examined by comparing the number of accidents, the proportion of fatal accidents, and the proport…
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aerospace) Classification and Analysis of Go-Arounds in Commercial Aviation Using ADS-B Data
Go-arounds are a necessary aspect of commercial aviation and are conducted after a landing attempt has been aborted. It is necessary to conduct go-arounds in the safest possible manner, as go-arounds …
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Accepted Manuscript (Version with final changes) Go-Around Criteria Refinement for Transport Category Aircraft
Presently, airline pilots are trained to go around if, when lower than 500 ft above the ground, they are outside of a handful of parameters such as airspeed, position, and rate of descent.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Validation of Proposed Go-Around Criteria Under Various Environmental Conditions
This paper evaluates the effects of environmental conditions on touchdown performance under varying approach states and validates proposed go-around criteria developed using data from a previously con…