CEN25LA314
2025-08-10 · Goodland, Kansas, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport GLD
Current FAA registration · N502WF
- Make / Model
- AIR TRACTOR INC AT-502B
- Seats / Engines
- 1 seats · 1 engine
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A64358
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to maintain aircraft control during the landing and go-around with variable wind direction and speed.
Factual narrative
The pilot stated that during the landing flare the airplane suddenly pitched up and climbed about 25 feet. She reported that after she re-stabilized, the nose of the airplane suddenly yawed 15-20° to the right. She corrected the nose back to align with the runway centerline and the nose suddenly yawed 15-20° to the left. She attempted to go around by adding engine power, but the airplane yawed about 90° to the right, impacted the ground and slid across the grass resulting in substantial damage to the left wing. The pilot reported that she believed a dust devil may have been the cause of the airplane upset. According to a Surface Analysis chart, a surface wind trough was observed near the accident site around the time of the accident. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operations. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Variable wind-Contributed to outcome
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2025_CEN25LA314.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
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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…