NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DEN89LA150
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR WIND CONDITIONS BY THE PILOT AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN RUNWAY ALIGNMENT. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE WIND CONDITIONS, HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, AND TREES.
Factual narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THAT AS HE WAS LANDING, THE AIRPLANE ENCOUNTERED A STRONG GUST OF WIND WHICH BLEW IT TO THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RWY. DENSITY ALTITUDE AT THE ARPT WAS 11,600 FT. THE PLT ATTEMPTED A GO-AROUND, BUT WAS UNABLE TO GET THE ACFT TO CLEAR OVER TREES. THE ACFT THEN CRASHED TO THE GROUND & CAME TO REST INVERTED WITH ITS TAIL & LEFT WING TORN OFF. THE FIXED BASE OPERATOR AT THE ARPT ESTIMATED THE WIND WAS FROM 240 DEG AT 7 KTS. THE ARPT DIRECTORY RECOMMENDED THAT LANDINGS BE MADE ON RWY 9 & TAKEOFFS BE MADE ON RWY 27 FOR NOISE ABATEMENT REASONS. LOCAL PILOTS RPRTD THAT SUDDEN STRONG GUSTS ARE OFTEN ENCOUNTERED DRG LANDINGS AT THIS ARPT. A PLT, WHO LANDED JUST AFTER THE ACDNT, ALSO ENCOUNTERED UNFAVORABLE WIND NEAR THE APCH END OF RWY 9. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_DEN89LA150.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…
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