GAA18CA288 · Diamond Aircraft IND Inc DA 40 UNDESIGNAT
Diamond Aircraft IND Inc DA 40 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Sussex Airport (FWN) to 9B1 · Marlborough, MA
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA288
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Diamond Aircraft IND Inc DA 40 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Diamond DA-40
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N143RD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sussex Airport (FWN), Sussex, NJTo 9B1 · Marlborough, MA
- Aircraft age
- About 12 years (built 2006)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · landing roll
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control on ground
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during landing, the airplane touched down in the first third of the 1,659-ft-long runway, but the airplane did not seem to slow as normal with the brakes applied. He pumped the brakes, but the deceleration was "less than expected." He considered performing a go around but decided to use maximum braking instead. With maximum braking applied, the airplane veered off the runway to the right and impacted a fence.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
He further reported that, following the accident, he inspected the runway and found solid skid marks from the right tire and broken skid marks from the left tire.
The pilot reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was light and variable and predominately from 280°. The automated weather observation station located about 12 miles east of the accident airport reported that, about 19 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 220° at 12 knots. The airplane landed on runway 32.
The calculated landing roll with full flaps was 930 ft, and the landing distance over a 50-ft obstacle was 2,020 ft.
The manufacturer stated that "For a safe landing the landing distance available (LDA) should be at least equal to the landing distance of a 50 ft (15m) obstacle."
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper decision to land on a runway that was too short for a safe landing and his subsequent failure to maintain directional control in tailwind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA288
- Event ID
- 20180521X42657
- Case number
- GAA18CA288
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1ce41c6e65aa55ee890970612fbb18fd2e82921c7687985bbeaef9306b6d9e65; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:13:09.833Z.