NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA23LA060
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The captain’s pitch up input to avoid an overspeed condition, which resulted in a flight attendant falling and fracturing her ankle. Contributing was the airplane’s excessive airspeed during the transition to the automation-managed descent profile.
Factual narrative
According to the flight crew, the airplane was descending to land with the autopilot configured to intercept a managed flight path profile. The airplane was descending in "Vertical Speed” mode at 500 feet per minute, with the airspeed set for 300 knots. As the airplane approached the profile, the crew selected “Managed Descent” mode and the airplane nosed over rapidly to intercept the descending flight path. The first officer checked the altimeter setting and then noticed that the airspeed indicator was approaching the maximum allowable airspeed; he then deployed the speed brakes to about 50%. Simultaneously, the captain took control of the airplane, disengaged the autopilot, and pitched up to avoid an overspeed condition. The crew then reset the automation and commenced a deliberate slow down. Shortly thereafter, the cabin crew called and advised that one of the flight attendants was injured during the maneuver. A flight attendant who was securing carts in the aft galley was hoisted into the air and landed on her left foot, fracturing her ankle. The remainder of the flight continued without incident. 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-Use of automation-Copilot
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Not attained/maintained
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Incorrect use/operation
- — Personnel issues-Experience/knowledge-Knowledge-(general)-Cabin crew
- — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Copilot
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-(general)-(general)-Incorrect use/operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2022_DCA23LA060.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.
- 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.
- arXiv 2020 · arXiv preprint
Reinforcement Learning for Robust Missile Autopilot Design
Designing missiles' autopilot controllers has been a complex task, given the extensive flight envelope and the nonlinear flight dynamics.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗