NTSB CAROL · Event
Event BFO89FA027
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
IMPROPER INSTRUCTION BY THE STUDENT'S FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR REGARDING THE EXECUTION OF S-TURNS ON FINAL APPROACH TO INCREASE SPACING AND THE RETRACTION OF FLAPS FULLY WHEN EXECUTING A GO-AROUND AND THE FAILURE OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE FLYING SPEED WHILE MAKING STEEP S-TURNS ON FINAL APPROACH. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: INADEQUATE ATC CONTROL TOWER SERVICE AND TRAFFIC SEPARATION, IMPROPER SUPERVISION IN THE TOWER, AND INEXPERIENCE OF THE STUDENT PILOT.
Factual narrative
STUDENT IN CESSNA 152 (N93748) WAS SEQUENCED TO LND BHND N97M AS BEECH 90 (N20) WAS AWAITING TKOF. AS N97M WAS LNDG, N20 WAS CLRD ON RWY TO HOLD & THE STUDENT WAS CLRD TO LND. 39 SEC LTR, N20 WAS CLRD FOR TKOF. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, N93748STALLED AND CRASHED APRX 580' SHORT OF THE RWY. WITNESSES SAID THE STUDENT FLEW FM A CLOSE BASE TO A SHORT FINAL APCH, THEN MADE 2 OR 3 STEEP S-TURNS AT LOW SPEED, AS IF TO GET MORE SEPN BHND N20. TOWER SUPVSR (CIC) OBSERVED INADQT SEPN BUT TOOK NO ACTION TO CORRECT IT. WITNESSES SAID N20 WAS HOLDING ON THE RWY WHEN THE STUDENT BEGAN S-TURNING. BFR TKOF, THE PLT OF N93748 TOLD GND CTL SHE WAS A STUDENT. THIS INFO WAS NOT PASSED TO LCL CTLRS. LCL CTLR WAS IN TRNG. NEITHER HE NOR HIS INSTRUCTOR KNEW THE PLT OF N93748 WAS A STUDENT. AIM RCMDD STUDENT ID ON INITIAL CALL TO RDO FAC. BUT, ATC HNDBK DIDN'T REQUIRE INFO TO BE FWDD. FLAPS WERE FND AT 10 DEG; STUDENT WAS TRND TO USE FULL FLAPS AND USE S-TURNS ON FINAL FOR SPACING, AND TO RAISE FLAPS FULL UP FOR GO-ARND; POH RCMDD 20 DEG OF FLAPS UNTIL SAFE SPEED WAS OBTAINED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_BFO89FA027.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, go-around). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- 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…
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Automating Bird Diverter Installation through Multi-Aerial Robots and Signal Temporal Logic Specifications
This paper tackles the task assignment and trajectory generation problem for bird diverter installation using a fleet of multi-rotors.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Variation of Critical Crystallization Pressure for the Formation of Square Ice in Graphene Nanocapillaries
Two-dimensional square ice in graphene nanocapillaries at room temperature is a fascinating phenomenon and has been confirmed experimentally.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Polycrystallinity enhances stress build-up around ice
Damage caused by freezing wet, porous materials is a widespread problem, but is hard to predict or control. Here, we show that polycrystallinity makes a great difference to the stress build-up process…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗