What happened
During a nighttime flight involving touch-and-go maneuvers at Fort Lauderdale-Hallwood Airport, a twin engine airplane experienced a catastrophic loss of control. While the aircraft was on approach, the pilot initiated a go-around procedure. During this phase of flight, the aircraft entered a stall and subsequently crashed, resulting in an immediate post-impact fire. There were two fatalities among the occupants of the plane.
Findings
The investigation into the accident identified several critical errors during the go-around process. The primary cause was determined to be an aerodynamic stall occurring because the pilot did not maintain sufficient airspeed. Several contributing factors were noted in the official report:
- Failure to retract the landing gear following the decision to go around
- Improper management or incorrect use of the aircraft flaps
- An error in judging the aircraft's speed and distance from the runway
- An approach that overshot the intended path