NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CHI91LA074
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN PROPER RUNWAY ALIGNMENT DURING A GO-AROUND. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE LANDING GEAR ELECTRICAL SYSTEM.
Factual narrative
THE PILOT SAID THAT AFTER CIRCLING THE AIRPORT, TO DETERMINE RUNWAY USE ON A DARK NIGHT, HE LOWERED THE GEAR AND PREPARED TO LAND. HE NOTICED ON FINAL APPROACH, THE LANDING GEAR INDICATOR LIGHTS WERE NOT ILLUMINATED PROPERLY AND ATTEMPTED TO DETERMINE IF THE GEAR WAS IN THE SAFE POSITION. HE SAW THE LIGHTED WIND TEE GO BY, ABOUT MID-FIELD, DURING FINAL APPROACH AND DECIDED THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT RUNWAY TO LAND SO ELECTED TO MAKE A GO AROUND. HE SAID THAT HE MUST HAVE INADVERTENTLY SHUT THE PANEL LIGHTS OFF, WHICH AUTOMATICALLY BRIGHTENS UP THE GEAR POSITION LIGHTS. HE ATTEMPTED TO REACH A FLASHLIGHT IN THE COCKPIT, BUT UNKNOWINGLY BANKED THE AIRCRAFT TO THE RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY, COLLIDED WITH SOME TREES, THEN COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN. THIS TYPE OF AIRCRAFT WAS DESIGNED TO AUTOMATICALLY DIM THE GEAR POSITION LIGHTS WHEN THE PANEL LIGHTS WERE ACTIVATED, TO REDUCE COCKPIT GLARE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1991_CHI91LA074.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 (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 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…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗