NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ATL89LA097
Registry · N601RF
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 180J
Year of manufacture
1975 · 14 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)
Seats / Engines
6 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20010822
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A7CC73
Registrant of record
PEARSON NILS C
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
IMPROPER TORQUING OF THE ATTACHMENT BOLT DURING INSTALLATION BY UNKNOWN PERSON(S), WHICH RESULTED IN THE SEPARATION OF THE BOLT AND NUT AND SUBSEQUENT SEPARATION OF THE MAIN LANDING GEAR FROM THE AIRPLANE.
Factual narrative
THE RT MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED AND SEPARATED FROM THE AIRPLANE DURING LDG ROLLOUT. EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE AN7-20A ATTACHMENT BOLT & MS20365-720C NUT HAD STRIPPED & SEPARATED. THE BOLT EXHIBITED EVIDENCE OF HAVING BEEN LOOSE PRIOR TO THE FAILURE. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE LOGS REVEALED NO ENTRIES PERTAINING TO RT MLG MAINTENANCE, OR ANY AIRFRAME REPAIRS, WHICH WOULD HAVE REQUIRED REMOVAL & REINSTALLATION OF THE GEAR. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_ATL89LA097.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
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