NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX94LA228
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN THE PROPER TOUCHDOWN POINT AND HIS FAILURE TO INITIATE A GO-AROUND.
Factual narrative
HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On May 30, 1994, at 1410 Pacific daylight time, a Piper PA-28- 151, N44630, operated by Tradewind Aviation, collided with trees during a long landing at the Sonoma Skypark (uncontrolled) Airport, Sonoma, California. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the personal flight. The airplane was substantially damaged, and neither the private pilot nor the passenger was injured. No flight plan was filed. The personal flight originated from Little River, California, on May 30, 1994, at 1300. The pilot verbally reported to the National Transportation Safety Board that he experienced turbulence on final approach to runway 26. The airplane touched down long, and the pilot initially tried to go around. The pilot further stated that during rollout he changed his mind because he did not believe sufficient runway existed to successfully take off. So he then attempted to stop. The airplane exited the departure end of the runway and collided with trees. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "Airport Facility Directory," runway 26 is 2,340 feet long by 30 feet wide. The runway threshold is displaced by 237 feet.
PERSONNEL INFORMATION
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, on January 29, 1992, the pilot was issued a Private Pilot Certificate. On October 2, 1993, when the pilot was issued a third-class aviation medical certificate, he reported having 100 total flight hours.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
On June 1, 1994, the Safety Board mailed the pilot the "Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report," NTSB Form 6120.1, to complete. The Safety Board did not receive the completed form. On November 8, 1994, the Safety Board again requested that the pilot complete the NTSB 6120.1 form. The pilot verbally reported that he had mailed the Safety Board the report form, and he indicated he would mail a duplicate to the Safety Board. On November 18, 1994, the Safety Board made an additional request for the pilot to complete the required NTSB 6120.1 form. The Safety Board informed the pilot that neither the Federal Aviation Administration coordinator nor the Safety Board Southwest Regional Office had received the form. The pilot reported that, in fact, he had not completed the required report form. The pilot also reported that he did not plan to complete it. The pilot declined to provide the Safety Board with information regarding his flying hours and currency. He declined to provide any additional information regarding the circumstances of his accident. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT ON FINAL APPROACH HE EXPERIENCED TURBULENCE. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN LONG, AND THE PILOT STATED THAT HE INITIALLY ATTEMPTED TO GO-AROUND. THE PILOT FURTHER REPORTED THAT DURING ROLLOUT HE CHANGED HIS MIND AND ATTEMPTED TO STOP. THE AIRPLANE OVERRAN THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY AND COLLIDED WITH TREES. THE RUNWAY IS 2,340 FEET LONG AND ITS THRESHOLD IS DISPLACED BY 237 FEET. THE PILOT DID NOT REPORT HIS RECENT FLYING EXPERIENCE OR CURRENCY. ON A MEDICAL CERTIFICATE APPLICATION 8 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, THE PILOT REPORTED HE HAD 100 HOURS OF FLYING EXPERIENCE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1994_LAX94LA228.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around, turbulence). 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 2019 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Low Level Turbulence Detection For Airports
Abstract—— Low level wind shear and turbulence present a serious safety risk to aircraft during the approach, landing and take-off phases.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2018 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Evaluating the Effect of Turbulence on Aircraft During Landing and Take-Off Phases
—— Low level wind shear and turbulence present a serious safety risk to aircraft during the approach, landing and take-off phases.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint
Direct Numerical Simulations of Ice-Ocean Boundary Turbulence
Turbulent heat and freshwater transport at ice-ocean interfaces controls glacier and iceberg melt rates, yet the underlying physics remains poorly constrained.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
Political Turbulence and Aviation Safety: A Cross-National Analysis of Political Stability's Effects on Aviation Accidents
To what extent does political stability affect aviation safety? This research aims to link domestic political conditions and public safety through the consideration of aviation accident frequency.
- 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.
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Explainable LiDAR 3D Point Cloud Segmentation and Clustering for Detecting Airplane-Generated Wind Turbulence
Wake vortices - strong, coherent air turbulences created by aircraft - pose a significant risk to aviation safety and therefore require accurate and reliable detection methods.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗