FTW00LA234
2000-08-16 · SAN ANTONIO, Texas, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport 5C1
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control. A factor was the crosswind.
Factual narrative
On August 16, 2000, at 1700 central daylight time, a Cessna 152 single-engine airplane, N68168, struck a hangar during a go-around at the Boerne Stage Field Airport near San Antonio, Texas. The airplane was owned and operated by the pilot under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The private pilot, sole occupant, received minor injuries, and the airplane sustained substantial damage. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the personal cross-country flight which departed Giddings, Texas, at 1555, and a flight plan was not filed. The pilot reported that he was landing the airplane on runway 17, and the landing "seemed quite routine until I found myself several feet above the ground, power off, [air]plane banked to the left. I don't know how I got into this position, but perhaps this is what happened. I had cut the throttle and was lined up for the spot on the runway I wanted to touch down on. I don't think I ever did touch down. Perhaps I flared out too soon and/or too high. Then a gust of wind (shear?) lifted my right wing and I was in a bad bank to the left with my nose up." Attempting to recover, I applied full throttle. I think I was still turning to the left. I tried to miss the hangar east of the runway, but clipped it with my right wing. I plunged, nose down, into the ground." The pilot reported the wind was from 190 degrees at 10 knots. A witness reported to the FAA inspector, that the airplane flared high, bounced, and turned perpendicular to the runway. Subsequently, the airplane's right wing struck the hangar. The airplane spun around and came to rest on a southeast heading. The FAA inspector responding to the site found the "throttle wide open." He found thermal damage in the nose area from a post-impact fire. The propeller was found separated from the engine crankshaft. The wings and fuselage were twisted, crushed, and wrinkled. Propeller slash marks were noted along the parallel taxiway and the driveway to the hangar. According to the pilot, during the landing flare for runway 17, the airplane was several feet above the ground, power off, and banked to the left. The pilot applied full power for a go-around; however, the airplane turned perpendicular to the runway, crossed the parallel taxiway, and the right wing struck a hangar. Subsequently, the airplane nosed down into the ground. The pilot reported the wind was from 190 degrees at 10 knots. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2000_FTW00LA234.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
- 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…