NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA20CA088
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's unstabilized approach, which resulted in a hard, bounced landing, loss of directional control, and impact with a tree and then terrain.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that during landing, his approach was unstable with an excessive descent rate. Surveillance video footage showed that the airplane touched down hard at the start of the displaced threshold, bounced, veered right and exited the side of the runway where it impacted terrain, and a post-crash fire ensued. The airplane sustained thermal and substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage. The pilot did not report a preaccident mechanical failure or malfunction with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot did not submit the National Transportation Safety Board Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report Form 6120.1. The pilot reported that, during landing, his approach was unstable with an excessive descent rate. Surveillance video footage showed that the airplane touched down hard at the start of the displaced threshold, bounced, veered right, exited the side of the runway, clipped a tree, and then impacted terrain. A postcrash fire ensued. The airplane sustained thermal and substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage. The pilot report that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions 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-Descent/approach/glide path-Not attained/maintained - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
- C Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Effect on operation - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2019_GAA20CA088.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 (unstabilized approach). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
Utilizing Deep Learning to Predict Unstabilized Approaches for General Aviation Aircraft
Unstabilized approaches pose a major hazard for general aviation aircraft. In the period from 2009 to 2019, 3,257 general aviation accidents occurred during the landing phase of flight in which loss o…
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2014 · Accident report
Crash during a Nighttime Nonprecision Instrument Approach — UPS 1354
UPS Flight 1354 (A300-600F) Birmingham AL, August 14, 2013. Investigation of UPS 1354 crash short of runway 18 at Birmingham.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗