GAA19CA050 · Piper PA28 161
Piper PA28 161 · Accident: landing area overshoot
From Republic Airport (FRG) to Lufker Airport (49N)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA050
- 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
Piper PA28 161
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N8275V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Republic Airport (FRG), Farmingdale, NYTo Lufker Airport (49N), East Moriches, NY
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1982)
- 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
- 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
- Landing area overshoot
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Pole
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that, during the preflight inspection, he did not observe anything abnormal. He added that, during the initial taxi, the airplane "pulled more power than usual" but that he observed no issues with the brakes or flight controls.
The pilot reported that, during approach to a 2,300-ft-long grass airstrip about 60 knots with full flaps, he reduced power to idle to flare. The airplane was "still floating," and about midfield, he saw that the rpm had increased with the power at idle to between about 1,000 to 1,200 rpm. He retracted the flaps to 15° to execute a go-around, but before he increased power, the airplane touched down on the runway. He was going to continue the go-around but realized the airplane would be unable to clear power lines and trees at the end of the runway. He then braked hard but was unable to stop the airplane on the grass, so he shut off the fuel pump and closed the mixture. He added that the "engine did not stop," and the airplane continued moving forward due to momentum. He applied full brakes with an "s turn and 180 turn," the airplane slid on the grass, and the left wing struck a wooden pole. The airplane then came to an abrupt stop. The pilot stated that he saw that the engine and propeller had stopped
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing.
The Federal Aviation Administration inspector reported that he attempted to examine the engine, but the airplane was unavailable for examination.
The airplane manufacturer's prescribed "Go Around" checklist stated:
Throttle………………………..FULL
Carb Heat……………………….OFF
Flaps……….RETRACT TO 20 DEG
Vy……………………….….79 KIAS
Flaps…………..…RETRACT PROC
It is likely that the pilot flew the approach at too high of an airspeed and initiated the go-around too late, which resulted in the airplane floating and the subsequent landing area overshoot.
Probable cause
The pilot’s delayed initiation of a go-around and his subsequent use of the improper go-around procedure, which resulted in a landing area overshoot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA050
- Event ID
- 20181023X91217
- Case number
- GAA19CA050
- 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, coordinates. 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: c17a4f11bcedcfc00595b93cd6ae0560a16df66462c8e5a5cc254b9d6ab9bf9e; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:22:42.345Z.