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GAA18CA547

2018-08-20 · Burlington, Vermont, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport BTV

N557SP has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (LEARJET INC 45, built 2016), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot’s improper landing flare, which resulted in a bounced landing.

Factual narrative

The solo student pilot reported that, during approach, he was struggling to keep the airplane at 60 to 70 knots of airspeed, so he entered a side slip and reduced the power to idle. Once assured he would make the runway, he aligned the airplane with the runway, the airplane landed on the left main landing gear, bounced, and the student performed a go around. He entered the left traffic pattern and landed without further incident. Postaccident examination revealed substantial damage to the firewall and fuselage. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The automated weather observation station located on the airport reported that, about 6 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 270° at 6 knots. The airplane landed on runway 33. The solo student pilot reported that, during approach, he was struggling to keep the airspeed at 60 to 70 knots, so he entered a side slip and reduced the power to idle. Once assured the airplane would reach the runway, he aligned the airplane with the runway. The airplane landed on the left main landing gear, bounced, and the student performed a go-around. He entered the left traffic pattern and landed without further incident. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the firewall and fuselage. The student reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The automated weather observation station located on the airport reported that, about 6 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 270° at 6 knots. The airplane landed on runway 33. 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-Student/instructed 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_2018_GAA18CA547.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 (go-around). All research papers