NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX96LA020
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
the pilot's misjudged landing approach, failure to achieve the proper touchdown point, and his delayed decision to abort the landing.
Factual narrative
On October 24, 1995, at 0806 hours Pacific daylight time, a Pitts Special S-1C, N9060N, collided with rocks and water during a go-around at San Carlos airport, San Carlos, California. The pilot was not injured, but the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The aircraft was owned and operated by the pilot and was returning from a local personal flight when the accident occurred. The flight originated in San Carlos at 0745. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed. The certificated private pilot reported that he touched down just past the tower (midfield on the 2,600-foot-long runway), and realized that he would be unable to stop before reaching the end of the runway. He applied full throttle but did not get an immediate response. After some delay he heard the engine accelerate, but he was unable to avoid striking an 8-foot-high pile of rocks about 200 feet from the end of the runway. After striking the rocks, the aircraft descended until impacting the water in an inverted attitude about 800 feet from the end of the runway. The pilot reported that he had difficulty in egressing the aircraft due to his parachute snagging on the canopy. The aircraft and engine were examined by FAA inspectors from the San Jose, California, Flight Standards District Office. No discrepancies were found. The pilot reported that he touched down just past the tower (midfield on the 2,600-foot-long runway) and realized that he would be unable to stop before reaching the end of the runway. He applied full throttle but did not get an immediate response. After some delay he heard the engine accelerate, but he was unable to avoid striking an 8-foot-high pile of rocks about 200 feet from the end of the runway. After striking the rocks, the aircraft descended until impacting the water in an inverted attitude about 800 feet from the end of the runway. The aircraft and engine were examined and no discrepancies were found. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1995_LAX96LA020.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 (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 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…
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