NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR26LA045
Aircraft involved
Factual narrative
On November 17, 2025, about 0830 mountain standard time, a Piper PA 28-181, N4402N, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Mesa, Arizona. The flight instructor and student pilot were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight. The flight instructor reported that after a training flight they had returned to Falcon Field Airport (FFZ), Mesa, Arizona, where they then conducted 3 touch and go landings and a go-around. They continued their training in the traffic pattern and were in an extended downwind for runway 4L. After entering the base leg of the traffic pattern and as they were preparing for the approach, an uncommanded reduction of power occurred. The flight instructor took control of the airplane and advanced the mixture lever and moved the throttle lever; however, he was unable to restore engine power. The flight instructor soon realized they would not make the runway and assessed the limited landing options. He subsequently made a forced landing on a gravel road that paralleled a water canal. After landing, about 100 yards into the landing roll, the right wing collided with a cinder block fence and the airplane came to rest. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, left stabilizer and both wings. The airplane was recovered to a secure location for further examination. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2025_WPR26LA045.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
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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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