NYC99LA188
1999-08-01 · CHESWOLD, Delaware, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport 33N
Current FAA registration · N2746C
- Make / Model
- CESSNA 172R
- Year of manufacture
- 1998 · 1 years old at event
- Engine
- LYCOMING I0-360-B1E (180 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 4 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19980928
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A2B885
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's improper flare and improper recovery from a bounced landing.
Factual narrative
On August 1, 1999, about 1110 Eastern Daylight Time, a Cessna 172R, N2746C, was substantially damaged while landing at the Delaware Airport (33N), Cheswold, Delaware. The certificated private pilot and the passenger were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the personal flight that originated at the Brandywine Airport (N99), West Chester, Pennsylvania, conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. The pilot stated that while landing at 33N, the first approach to land on Runway 27, a 3,715-foot long asphalt runway, was high, and a go-around was performed. The second attempt to land on Runway 27 was long, and the airplane floated about halfway down the runway, before touching down hard. The airplane then bounced into the air, and settled back to the ground, touching down hard a second time. The airplane bounced several more times, until the pilot added full power, and executed a go-around. The pilot climbed the airplane to about 3,000 feet above the ground, and returned to N99. The pilot did not notice any vibrations during the return flight, and the airplane performed normally, except for a slightly slower airspeed. Examination of the airplane at N99 by a Federal Aviation Inspector revealed damage to the main gear, the main cabin floorboards, buckling of the firewall, and 2-inch rearward curling of the propeller blades. The winds reported at an airport located 5 miles to the southeast, at 1045 were, 300 degrees at 8 knots. The pilot stated that while landing at his destination, the first approach to land on Runway 27 was high, and a go-around was performed. The second attempt to land on the runway was long, and the airplane floated about halfway down the runway, before touching down hard. The airplane then bounced into the air, and settled back to the ground, touching down hard a second time. The airplane bounced several more times, until the pilot added full power, and executed a go-around. The pilot climbed the airplane to about 3,000 feet above the ground, and returned to his departure airport. The pilot did not notice any vibrations during the return flight, and the airplane performed normally, except for a slightly slower airspeed. Examination of the airplane revealed damage to the main gear, the main cabin floorboards, buckling of the firewall, and 2-inch rearward curling of the propeller Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1999_NYC99LA188.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
- Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗
- Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗
- AVweb Aviation press ↗
- Pilots of America Community ↗
- Reddit /r/flying Community ↗
- FlightAware Aviation press ↗
- AOPA accident database Aviation press ↗
- Google News News ↗
- DuckDuckGo News ↗
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…