NTSB CAROL · Event
Event SEA90FA165
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FLARE THE AIRCRAFT FOR LANDING AND TO MAINTAIN ITS CONTROL DURING THE ATTEMPTED GO-AROUND (ABORTED LANDING). FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, A NUMBER OF RUNWAY EDGE LIGHTS THAT WERE EITHER INOPERATIVE OR HIDDEN BY VEGEGATION, RAIN, REDUCED VISUAL CUES, THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT NIGHT FLYING EXPERIENCE, AND HIS FAILURE TO ATTAIN PROPER RUNWAY ALIGNMENT.
Factual narrative
THE PLT MADE A VFR APCH TO LND AT NGT ON RWY 31. ACCORDING TO WITNESS(ES), THERE WAS A TSTM SOUTH OF THE ARPT, BUT AT THE ARPT, THE WND WAS LGT & ONLY LGT RAIN WAS FALLING. AS THE PLT WAS LNDG, THE ACFT IMPACTED ON THE APCH END OF THE RWY, THEN BECAME AIRBORNE & IMPACTED AGAIN, FURTHER DOWN THE RWY. AN EXAM REVEALED THAT INITIAL IMPACT WAS 29' FM THE THRESHOLD. THE INITIAL SCRAPE MARK WAS ANGLED 10 DEG RIGHT OF THE RWY HDG. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THE LEFT WING TIP CONTACTED THE RWY NR THE APCH END, THEN THE TIPS OF THE LEFT PROP BLADES STRUCK THE RWY. THE ACFT THEN BECAME AIRBORNE & CRASHED INVERTED AFTER TRAVELING ABOUT 613' DOWN THE RWY. THE BLADE TIPS OF BOTH PROPS WERE TWISTED & CURLED; THERE WERE SLASH MARKS ON THE RWY FROM BOTH PROPS AT THE 2ND IMPACT POINT, WHERE THE ACFT HAD IMPACTED IN AN INVERTED ATTITUDE. OF 62 RWY EDGE LGTS, 20 WERE INOP OR BROKEN & 2 WERE NOT VISIBLE DUE TO TALL VEGETATION. THE LAST RECORDED NGT TIME IN THE PLT'S LOG WAS DATED 5/5/81. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1990_SEA90FA165.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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