NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA22LA004
Registry · N208HA
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
AIRBUS A321-271N
Year of manufacture
2018 · 3 years old at event
TCDS
A28NM · AIRBUS SAS
Engine
IAE PW1133G-JM
Seats / Engines
222 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20181101
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A1B06B
Registrant of record
HAWAIIAN AIRLINES INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The captain’s improper landing flare, which resulted in an excessive sink rate and subsequent hard landing.
Factual narrative
According to the operator, the captain was the pilot flying, and the first officer was the pilot monitoring for the flight from the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), San Jose, California to the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, Hawaii. The taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, and descent phases of the flight were uneventful. The crew was vectored for the ILS approach to runway 4R at HNL. The ILS approach was uneventful with the crew achieving all of Hawaiian Airlines stabilized approach criteria at both the 1000 ft and 500 ft AGL. The approach remained uneventful until the flare was initiated at approximately 25 feet AGL. Winds were reported to be approximately 11 kts with gusting up to 18 kts. At this point the captain reported that he felt the aircraft had an accelerated sink rate. To arrest the sink rate, he initiated a slight increase in pitch angle. He then heard an automated audible pitch alert generated by the aircraft and then felt a firm bounce of the aircraft upon initial touchdown. The crew initiated a go-around and had an uneventful approach and landing on runway 04R. Following the landing the crew completed an uneventful taxi and shutdown at the gate. The tailstrike resulted in abrasion damage over an area of about 14 feet long by 2 feet wide along the aft lower fuselage. There also were several fractures to the internal cargo lining support structure and to at least one frame. 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-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Identification/recognition-Pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2021_DCA22LA004.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 (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 ↗