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Atlas / NTSB / DCA87MA030

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DCA87MA030

1987-05-08 MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico Airport · MAZ Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N432CA

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172S

Year of manufacture

2024

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20241108

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A52ABF

Registrant of record

CIVIL AIR PATROL

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

AFTER SEVERAL MAINTENANCE ADJUSTMENTS OF THE RIGHT PROPELLER AND FLIGHT IDLE FUEL FLOW, THE AIRCRAFT WAS TEST FLOWN AND RELEASED FOR FLIGHT. SEVERAL PILOTS CONTINUED TO NOTE DESCREPANCIES CONCERNING THE RIGHT PROPELLER SYSTEM. ADJUSTMENTS WERE MADE AND THE AIRCRAFT WAS AGAIN RELEASED FOR FLIGHT. AT MAYAGUEZ, THE CREW MADE A SHORT, STEEP APPROACHTO THE RUNWAY. ON VERY SHORT FINAL WITNESSES SAID THEY HEARD SOUNDS RESEMBLING A PROPELLER IN REVERSE THRUST. THE AIRCRAFT MADE AN EXTREME YAW TO THE RIGHT, FOLLOWED BY A LEFT BANK, THEN A RIGHT BANK. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED RIGHT WING FIRST. THE POST-ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE RIGHT PROPELLER HAD BEEN IN THE BETA RANGE. THE RIGHT ENGINE FLIGHT IDLE FUEL FLOW WAS EXCESSIVELY HIGH. EXAM OF THE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM SHOWED DEFICIENCIES IN THE MANAGEMENT, SUPERVISION, AND HANDLING OF PILOT-REPORTED PROBLEMS. THE INVESTIGATION ALSO FOUND THE FAA MANAGEMENT OF THE BILATERAL TYPE CERTIFICATION OF THE C-212-CC INEFFECTIVE. (FOR FURTHER INFORMATION SEE NTSB/AAR-88/07.) Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_DCA87MA030.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 (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 ↗