LAX04LA030
2003-10-28 · LOS ANGELES, California, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport WHP
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's misjudgment of distance and speed on the approach resulting in an overrun.
Factual narrative
On October 28, 2003, at 1626 Pacific standard time, a Cessna 310C, N6674B, landed long and collided with the airport perimeter fence at the departure end of runway 12 at the Whiteman Airport (WHP), Los Angeles, California. The pilot operated the airplane under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The airplane sustained substantial damage. The private pilot/owner, the sole occupant, was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the cross-country flight that departed the North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), North Las Vegas, Nevada, at 1430. An instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan had been filed. The scheduled destination was WHP. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector interviewed the pilot. The flight was on the VOR-A approach into WHP. On final approach tower personnel advised him that he was lined up to land on the grass. The pilot executed a go-around. On the second approach he "landed long and too fast." The airplane collided with the airport perimeter fence. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the airplane. The FAA inspector noted skid marks on the runway, as well as, bald spots on the tires. The aircraft landed long, overran the departure end of the runway, and collided with an airport perimeter fence. On final approach the pilot executed a go-around because he was not properly aligned with the active runway. The pilot said that on the second approach he "landed long and too fast," overran the departure end of the runway and collided with the airport perimeter fence. The pilot said there were no mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2003_LAX04LA030.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.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
- Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗
- Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗
- AVweb Aviation press ↗
- Pilots of America Community ↗
- Reddit /r/flying Community ↗
- FlightAware Aviation press ↗
- AOPA accident database Aviation press ↗
- Google News News ↗
- DuckDuckGo News ↗
Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). All research papers
- 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.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Validation of Proposed Go-Around Criteria Under Various Environmental Conditions
This paper evaluates the effects of environmental conditions on touchdown performance under varying approach states and validates proposed go-around criteria developed using data from a previously con…