NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR20CA276
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to maintain altitude on short final due to an encounter with a down draft and the flight instructor's delayed remedial action.
Factual narrative
The flight instructor reported that the pilot receiving instruction was able to maintain an approximately 3° glide path on final approach to land, with power at an intermediate setting. However, on short final the airplane began to sink. The instructor stated that initially the pilot receiving instruction appeared to be adequately correcting, adding power, and increasing pitch. However, less than 100 ft above the touchdown zone and right before the flight instructor was about to command a go-around, the airplane sank further and touched down just prior to the runway. The right main landing gear impacted the edge of the runway and collapsed, substantially damaging the right wing. The flight instructor reported that there were no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot
- F Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Turbulence-Convective turbulence-Contributed to outcome
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained
- — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Delayed action-Instructor/check pilot
- — Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring other person-Instructor/check pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_WPR20CA276.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…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗