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GAA15CA148

2015-06-27 · West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport AGC

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain pitch control during landing, which resulted in a bounce and loss of control during landing, followed by a runway excursion, and collision with terrain during an attempt to abort the landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that during the initial touch down the airplane bounced, the pilot elected to abort the landing, and the airplane drifted to the left of the runway when power was applied. The pilot stated that the airplane did not have sufficient airspeed when she retracted the first notch of flaps, the airplane descended and the right wing impacted the ground, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing. The pilot reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that during the initial touch down the airplane bounced, the pilot elected to abort the landing, and the airplane drifted to the left of the runway when power was applied. The pilot stated that the airplane did not have sufficient airspeed when she retracted the first notch of flaps, the airplane descended and the right wing impacted the ground, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing. The pilot reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2015_GAA15CA148.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 (loss of control, runway excursion). All research papers