LAX92LA069
1991-12-23 · CARLSBAD, California, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport CRQ
N44PA has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (ROBINSON HELICOPTER R44 II, built 2021), which was not involved in this event.
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT NOT ATTAINING THE PROPER TOUCHDOWN POINT BECAUSE OF EXCESSIVE ALTITUDE AND AIRSPEED, AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PERFORM A GO-AROUND. A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE ROUGH AND UNEVEN TERRAIN WHICH WAS ENCOUNTERED AFTER THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED THE RUNWAY.
Factual narrative
3THE PILOT AND CO-PILOT REPORTED IN THEIR WRITTEN STATEMENTS THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS ABOVE GLIDESLOPE ON THE FINAL APPROACH. THEY SAID THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT 1,500 FEET FROM THE APPROACH END OF THE 4,700 FEET LONG RUNWAY. THE PILOT SAID HE APPLIED THE BRAKES BUT COULD NOT STOP THE AIRPLANE ON THE RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND CONTINUED FORWARD OVER ROUGH AND UNEVEN TERRAIN. THE MAIN LANDING GEAR SHEARED OFF AND PENETRATED BOTH WINGS. THE AIRPLANE CAME TO A STOP IN A GULLY. OTHER WITTNESSES LOCATED ON THE GROUND AND IN THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER REPORTED THE AIRPLANE WAS 'HIGH AND FAST' AND TOUCHED DOWN AT ABOUT MIDFIELD OR AFTER. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1991_LAX92LA069.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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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…