NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX06CA209
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
the student pilot's unstabilized approach, misjudged landing flare, inadequate recovery from a bounced landing, and failure to maintain directional control. A contributing factor to the accident was the in-flight distraction.
Factual narrative
On June 22, 2006, at 0920 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 152, N5534M, landed hard and the left wing struck the runway at Buchanan Field Airport, Concord, California. Pacific States Aviation, Inc., was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The student pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The airplane sustained substantial damage to a rib in the left wing. The pilot departed from Concord and was performing his first solo landing when the accident occurred. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan had been filed. In a written statement, the student pilot reported that the downwind and base turn of the traffic pattern were uneventful. When he turned the airplane onto the final leg of the traffic pattern, he noticed smoke coming from a field close to the runway. The student pilot was worried about his flight visibility and the effects that the smoke would have on the handling characteristics of the airplane. Due to these concerns, he was less focused on his landing and approached the runway at too high of an airspeed. When the airplane touched down, it bounced three times and drifted to the left. He added right rudder to prevent the airplane from veering off of the runway and the airplane sharply turned to the right and the left wing struck the ground. The student pilot said that there were no mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. The airplane landed hard and the left wing struck the runway. The student pilot reported that when he turned the airplane onto the final leg of the traffic pattern, he noticed smoke coming from a field close to the runway. The student pilot was worried about his flight visibility and the effects that the smoke would have on the handling characteristics of the airplane. Due to these concerns, he was less focused on his landing and approached the runway at too high of an airspeed. When the airplane touched down, it bounced three times and drifted to the left. He added right rudder to prevent the airplane from veering off of the runway and the airplane sharply turned to the right and the left wing struck the ground. The student pilot said that 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_2006_LAX06CA209.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
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- NASA NTRS 2021 · Poster
Sleep, Sleepiness, and Performance Across Three In-Flight Bunk Rest Opportunities
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- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article (Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy)
Routine opioid outcome monitoring in community pharmacy: Outcomes from an open-label single-arm implementation-effectiveness pilot study.
BACKGROUND In response to rising harms with prescription opioids, recent attention has focused on how to better utilise community pharmacists to monitor outcomes with opioid medicines.
- 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.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2011 · Journal article (JAAER)
System Safety Study: Pedagogical Aviation Action Research
Action Research (AR) is a scientific methodology whereby researchers participate in a research setting for data collection and problem resolution.
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