diff --git a/pkg/sql/importer/import_stmt_test.go b/pkg/sql/importer/import_stmt_test.go
index 149bbd0a244b..10bfebe0c3df 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/importer/import_stmt_test.go
+++ b/pkg/sql/importer/import_stmt_test.go
@@ -5253,10 +5253,15 @@ func TestImportWorkerFailure(t *testing.T) {
 	tc.StopServer(1)
 
 	close(allowResponse)
-	// We expect the statement to retry since it should have encountered a
-	// retryable error.
+	// We expect the IMPORT statement to usually retry since it should have
+	// encountered a retryable error. We don't currently catch all such retryable
+	// errors, however, so in some cases the IMPORT statement will return the
+	// error to the client. In this case we verify that the import was completely
+	// rolled back.
 	if err := <-errCh; err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
+		t.Logf("%s failed, checking that imported data was completely removed: %q", query, err)
+		sqlDB.CheckQueryResults(t, `SELECT * FROM t ORDER BY i`, [][]string{})
+		return
 	}
 
 	// But the job should be restarted and succeed eventually.