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GAA15CA228

2015-08-14 · Danbury, Connecticut, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport DXR

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain pitch control during the landing, resulting in a hard landing, nose gear collapse, runway excursion, and collision with terrain.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that he had a "hard landing", the nose gear collapsed and the airplane skidded off the runway to the left, impacting flat terrain between the runway and taxiway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. 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 he had a "hard landing", the nose gear collapsed and the airplane skidded off the runway to the left, impacting flat terrain between the runway and taxiway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. 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-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2015_GAA15CA228.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway excursion). All research papers