P2002 Sierra N494ES accident near Woodbine, New Jersey

Probable cause

The student pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during a go-around. Contributing to the accident was the student pilot's degraded emotional/mental state due to stress.

NTSB analysis

The student pilot departed and remained in the traffic pattern intending on performing touch-and-go landings. While on final approach with full flaps extended, flying at 10 feet above ground level, the pilot slowed the airplane to 38 knots indicated airspeed (KIAS), though 40 KIAS is the recommended touchdown speed. He reportedly landed, bounced 10 to 15 feet, and applied power to go-around, and he allowed the airplane to decelerate and stall. The airplane was equipped with an electronic flight instrumentation system (EFIS0 that records parameters every 5 seconds including time, date, indicated airspeed, GPS coordinates, ground speed, pitch, pressure altitude, vertical G’s, roll, heading, and slip. Readout of the EFIS revealed the entire accident flight was recorded. Data downloaded from the EFIS indicated that before the airplane stalled the pitch attitude (in degrees) increased to 11.94. The airplane rolled to the left and impacted grass to the left of the runway. There was no preimpact failure or malfunction of the airplane or its systems. The 75 hour student pilot stated that he was under stress due to an issue related to work, and he should not have been flying that day. He also reported, "he was much less focused than he should have been."

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for MIA08LA166 for the full record.