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Atlas / NTSB / BFO89FA060

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event BFO89FA060

1989-07-17 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N118FC

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

AGUSTAWESTLAND PHILADELPHIA CO AW119MKII

Year of manufacture

2022

TCDS

H7EU · LEONARDO S P A

Engine

P&W CANADA PT6B-37A (900 hp)

Seats / Engines

8 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20221202

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A04A6B

Registrant of record

FLORIDA DEPT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE THROTTLE AND VARIABLE ABSOLUTE CONTROLLER ASSEMBLIES BY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WHICH RESULTED IN A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER.

Factual narrative

WHILE RECEIVING VFR TRAFFIC ADVISORIES AT 10,500 FT THE PLT REPORTED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED IN A WOODED AREA 1/4 MILE NW OF THE CHARLOTTESVILLE ARPT WHILE RECEIVING RADAR VECTORS. INVESTIGATION REVEALED A FAILURE OF THE THROTTLE CONTROL LINKAGE BETWEEN THE THROTTLE AND THE VARIABLE ABSOLUTE CONTROLLER ASSEMBLY DUE TO PROGRESSIVE WEAR. THE FAILURE WOULD HAVE ALLOWED THE THROTTLE PLATE TO VIBRATE TO THE CLOSED POSITION. FURTHER EXAM REVEALED THAT A WAVE WASHER WAS MISSING IN THE LINKAGE ASSEMBLY. THE ENGINE HAD BEEN OVERHAULED AND THE TURBOCHARGER REPLACED 24 AND 12 MONTHS RESPECTIVELY PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_BFO89FA060.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗