NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX02LA186
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The student pilot's inadequate recovery from a bounced landing and the instructor's inadequate supervision.
Factual narrative
On June 7, 2002, at 0718 Pacific daylight time, a Piper PA-38-112, N49672, veered off the runway during a touch-and-go landing at Henderson (L15), Nevada. DSA, Inc., was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The certified flight instructor (CFI) pilot was not injured, and the student pilot sustained minor injuries; the airplane sustained substantial damage. The local instructional flight departed about 0700. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed. The CFI reported that the airplane was in the landing pattern practicing touch-and-go landings. On the third approach to landing, the student flared too high; the airplane contacted the ground hard and bounced. The CFI instructed the student to go around by applying full power and reducing the flaps to the first notch. The student applied full power, and raised the flaps to the full up position. The CFI then lowered the nose to gain airspeed. The airplane contacted the ground two more times before coming to rest on the left side of the runway. The right wing dug into dirt and rocks in the uneven terrain beside the runway. The wing and fuselage sustained substantial damage. The airplane had a bounced landing, and on the go-around it contacted the ground two more times before coming to rest on the left side of the runway. The airplane was in the landing pattern practicing touch-and-go landings. On the third approach to landing, the student flared too high; the airplane contacted the ground hard and bounced. The CFI instructed the student to go around by applying full power and reducing the flaps to the first notch. The student applied full power, and raised the flaps to the full up position. The CFI then lowered the nose to gain airspeed, but the airplane contacted the ground again. The right wing dug into dirt and rocks in the uneven terrain beside the runway. The wing and fuselage sustained substantial damage. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2002_LAX02LA186.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing, 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 2026 · Contractor Report (CR)
Icing Physics Studies Using the 3D SIDRM Test Article: 2023 Icing Tests Analysis
In-flight icing is an important safety issue and is a factor that affects aircraft design and performance. Newer regulations are driving a need for improvements in airframe and engine icing simulation…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Assisted 5G Network Slicing: A Comparative Study of MAPPO, MADDPG, and MADQN
The growing demand for robust, scalable wireless networks in the 5G-and-beyond era has led to the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as mobile base stations to enhance coverage in dense urb…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Mathematical Model on the Temporal Dynamics of Aviation Competitive Pricing
This study investigates the competitive dynamics of airport pricing using U.S. airport data to validate the findings. It employs linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equation models to analyze t…
- 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.
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Presentation
NASA Icing Update – March 2025
This NASA Icing Update was prepared for presentation to the SAE International AC-9C Inflight Icing Technology Committee. This update includes the following topics: planned Rotational Icing Scaling tes…
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
An energy-stable phase-field model for droplet icing simulations
A phase-field model for three-phase flows is established by combining the Navier-Stokes (NS) and the energy equations, with the Allen-Cahn (AC) and Cahn-Hilliard (CH) equations and is demonstrated ana…
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