NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA20CA095
Registry · N193AN
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
BOEING 757-223
Year of manufacture
2001 · 19 years old at event
Engine
ROLLS-ROYC RB-211 SERIES
Seats / Engines
178 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20010913
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A1735D
Registrant of record
WILMINGTON TRUST COMPANY TRUSTEE
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
the excessive pitch attitude at touchdown.
Factual narrative
On March 21, 2020, at 12:38 am Pacific daylight time (PDT), American Airlines flight 2341, a Boeing 757, N193AN, experienced a tailstrike during landing on runway 26L at the McCarran International Airport (KLAS), Las Vegas, Nevada. There were no injuries to the 127 passengers and crew, and the airplane was substantially damaged. The regularly scheduled passenger flight was operating under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 121from Miami International Airport (KMIA), Florida, to KLAS. Due to staffing issues related to COVID-19, Las Vegas tower and TRACON were at ATC-zero, and the arrival was handled by Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZLA). The captain was the flying pilot and the first officer was monitoring. According to the flight crew, the flight was cleared for a visual approach and they monitored the ILS 26L as a backup. The flight crew reported that the winds were from 040 degrees at 8 knots (slight tailwind), visibility greater than ten miles, and a thin layer of broken clouds at 17,000 feet. The captain conducted an approach briefing and the first officer conducted a Landing Distance Assessment to account for the slight tailwind. The first officer reported the approach was normal and stabilized, and they encountered a slight downdraft in the flare. The captain disconnected the autopilot at about 400 feet above the ground and the autothrottle at 200 feet. Flight data recorder data indicated that the pitch attitude was about 7 degrees at touchdown but, as the ground spoilers deployed, pitch attitude increased to 10.9 degrees. There was a 3 to 5 knot crosswind at touchdown. Post-flight inspection of the airplane indicated the underside of the rear fuselage struck the runway, resulting in damage to the skin, frames, and aft pressure bulkhead. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_DCA20CA095.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (autopilot). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 1993 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Cost Analysis: Re-Engining a Boeing 727-200 (Advanced) Versus Buying a New Boeing 757-200
The Boeing 727-200 and 757-200 are both narrowbody aircraft designed for short- to medium-range flights carrying 164 to 214 passengers.
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
ROSflight 2.0: Lean ROS 2-Based Autopilot for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
ROSflight is a lean, open-source autopilot ecosystem for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Designed by researchers for researchers, it is built to lower the barrier to entry to UAV research and acceler…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
ROSplane 2.0: A Fixed-Wing Autopilot for Research
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research requires the integration of cutting-edge technology into existing autopilot frameworks.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
A Data-Driven Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft Based on Model Predictive Control
Autopilots for fixed-wing aircraft are typically designed based on linearized aerodynamic models consisting of stability and control derivatives obtained from wind-tunnel testing.
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint
Experimental Flight Testing of a Fault-Tolerant Adaptive Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft
This paper presents an adaptive autopilot for fixed-wing aircraft and compares its performance with a fixed-gain autopilot.
- arXiv 2021 · arXiv preprint
An Adaptive Digital Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft with Actuator Faults
This paper develops an adaptive digital autopilot for a fixed-wing aircraft and compares its performance with a fixed-gain autopilot.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗