NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA10CA366
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
An in-flight encounter with a downdraft during a go-around, resulting in a collision with trees and the ground.
Factual narrative
The pilot stated that he departed from his private airstrip on a local area flight. He observed thunderstorms approaching the area and the winds were increasing, so he returned to the airstrip for landing. On final approach, he noticed that some children had left a gate open and his miniature donkeys were crossing the runway. He added power to go around, but the airplane would not climb. The airplane encountered a downdraft and collided vertically with trees and the ground. Examination of the airframe, flight controls and engine assembly and accessories revealed no anomalies. Weather radar data indicated that the area overhead the accident site was associated with dissipating echoes, which were decreasing in area coverage and in intensity with time, and implied a dissipating rain shower that would be typical of prevailing downdraft activity. The pilot stated that he departed from his private airstrip on a local area flight. He observed thunderstorms approaching the area and the winds were increasing, so he returned to the airstrip for landing. On final approach, he noticed that some children had left a gate open and his miniature donkeys were crossing the runway. He added power to go around, but the airplane would not climb. The airplane encountered a downdraft and collided vertically with trees and the ground. Examination of the airframe, flight controls and engine assembly and accessories revealed no anomalies. Weather radar data indicated that the area overhead the accident site was associated with dissipating echoes, which were decreasing in area coverage and in intensity with time, and implied a dissipating rain shower that would be typical of prevailing downdraft activity. 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).
- C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Downdraft-Contributed to outcome - C
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Contributed to outcome
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Aircraft capability-Climb capability-Not specified
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2010_ERA10CA366.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, thunderstorm). 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…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (IJAAA)
The Impact of Thunderstorms on Take-off Data in South Africa
Aviation and meteorology are entwined disciplines, as aviation occurs in the atmosphere. Prevailing weather conditions at take-off are of utmost importance to aviation.
- 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.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗