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ERA21LA025

2020-10-18 · Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport N94

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate clearance from trees during an attempted go-around in gusty crosswinds.

Factual narrative

The pilot was approaching the airport for landing, and while on short final approach he noticed that the airplane was too high and that there were variable and gusty crosswinds. The pilot decided to conduct a go-around. The pilot added power and pressed the control stick forward to prevent the airplane from pitching up as it gained airspeed. The pilot’s next recollection was seeing tree branches and the airplane descending in a nose down attitude into the woods. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and wings. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained
  • — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Identification/recognition-Pilot
  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on operation
  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_ERA21LA025.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). All research papers