NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA18CA021
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's use of an incorrect airspeed during landing, which resulted in a runway overrun.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that during landing, the airplane touched down about "150 ft. beyond [the runway] numbers" and he immediately "removed flaps and applied brakes." He added that he was "unable to stop the forward momentum of the plane," and he believed he was going to overrun the runway, so he applied full power to go-around. Subsequently, the airplane overran the runway before a climb rate could be established, and during the runway excursion, the airplane struck a chain link fence. During the impact, the right wing separated from the fuselage, and the airplane rolled inverted down a ravine before coming to a stop back on the main landing gear. The pilot further reported after the accident that he believed he came in "too fast" for landing. The airplane sustained substantial damage to fuselage, empennage, and both wings. The pilot did not report that there were any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that, during landing, the airplane touched down about "150 ft. beyond [the runway] numbers" and he immediately "removed flaps and applied brakes." He added that he was "unable to stop the forward momentum of the plane," and he believed he was going to overrun the runway, so he applied full power to go-around. Subsequently, the airplane overran the runway before a climb rate could be established, and during the runway excursion, the airplane struck a chain link fence. During the impact, the right wing separated from the fuselage, and the airplane rolled inverted down a ravine before coming to a stop on the main landing gear. The pilot further reported that, after the accident, he believed he came in "too fast" for landing. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, empennage, and both wings. The 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 Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Incorrect use/operation - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Aircraft capability-Landing distance-Not attained/maintained - C
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Fence/fence post-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2017_GAA18CA021.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 (runway excursion, 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.
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Runway Excursion — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary runway excursion review — RE-OE (overruns) + RE-LO (lateral). Risk drivers: long landing, high approach speed, contaminated surface, tailwind, mis-set autobrakes.
- 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.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗