NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA17CA173
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The student pilot’s loss of directional control.
Factual narrative
The solo student pilot reported that, during his first solo flight, on the second landing of three, the airplane porpoised. His flight instructor was observing the airplane and reported that the nose wheel impacted the ground first. Subsequently, the student pilot added power and performed a go-around. On the third landing the flight instructor added that the touchdown was soft and on the main landing gear. Once the nose wheel touched down, the airplane veered off the runway to the right, into grass, and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the empennage. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The solo student pilot reported that, during his first solo flight, on the second landing of three, the airplane porpoised. His flight instructor was observing the airplane and reported that the nosewheel impacted the ground first. Subsequently, the student pilot added power and performed a go-around. The flight instructor added that, on the third landing, the touchdown was soft and on the main landing gear. Once the nosewheel touched down, the airplane veered off the runway to the right into grass and then nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the empennage. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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 Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2017_GAA17CA173.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). 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…
- 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…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗