NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA18CA540
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to extend the landing gear during landing, which resulted in a runway excursion and subsequent impact with terrain.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that, during landing, on short final, he decided to go around. During the go-around, the airplane "developed a severe vibration" so he made a precautionary landing on runway 26 with the gear retracted. The airplane slid, exited the runway and impacted terrain. The inspector further reported that the airplane sustained substantial damage to the external longerons on the lower fuselage and engine mounts. The inspector added that, after his examination, he determined there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures to the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that, during landing, on short final, he decided to go around. He added that, during the go-around, the airplane "developed a severe vibration," so he made a precautionary landing with the gear retracted. The airplane slid, exited the runway, and impacted terrain. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the external longerons on the lower fuselage and engine mounts. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector reported that there were no 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 systems-Landing gear system-Gear extension and retract sys-Not used/operated - C
- C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Lack of action-Pilot - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2018_GAA18CA540.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 ↗