LAX96LA051
1995-11-20 · SAN CARLOS, California, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport SQL
N402KT has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON CANADA 407), which was not involved in this event.
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
the pilot's improper recovery from a bounced landing and failure to maintain directional control, while landing at night.
Factual narrative
On November 20, 1995, at 1757 hours Pacific standard time, a Diamond Aircraft DA20-A1 Katana, N402KT, veered to the left of runway 30 after landing and collided with a taxi sign at the San Carlos airport in San Carlos, California. The aircraft sustained substantial damage and the two occupants were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time with calm winds. The aircraft departed San Carlos at 1715 for a local pleasure flight. According to the local air traffic controller, the pilot had made two other attempts to land and executed a go-around each time for what appeared to be a too-fast approach. On the last landing, the aircraft bounced a couple of times and then veered to the left side of the runway. Runway 30 is 2,600 feet long and 75 feet wide. The runway was dry and the runway lights were set on medium intensity for the night landing. In his accident report the pilot indicated that he lost control while landing and veered off the left side of the runway and collided with a runway sign. He also indicated there was no mechanical problems with the aircraft. The pilot made two attempts to land and executed a go-around each time for what appeared to the local controller to be a too-fast approach. After another approach, the aircraft touched down and bounced a couple of times, then it veered off the runway and collided with a runway sign. The wind was calm, and the pilot reported no mechanical problems. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1995_LAX96LA051.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…