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DEN89FA177

1989-07-24 · LOGAN, Utah, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport LGU

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT AND IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE STUDENT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION FROM AN INADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL, AND THE STUDENT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED, WHILE MANEUVERING, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL/SPIN. A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS THE STUDENT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE.

Factual narrative

THE STUDENT PLT TOOK THE ACFT ON A FLT WITHOUT HAVING IT REFUELED & COMMENCED TO PRACTICE TOUCH-&-GO LANDINGS. WITNESSES RPRTD THAT AFTER THE ACFT TOOK OFF FROM A TOUCH-&-GO, THE ENG LOST POWER. THE ACFT BEGAN TURNING, THEN IT ENTERED A STEEP SPIRALING DESCENT & CRASHED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ACFT HAD FLOWN TWO PREVIOUS FLTS SINCE IT WAS LAST REFUELED. A POST-ACDNT EXAM REVEALED THERE WAS NO FUEL IN THE CARBURETOR & ONLY 'A CUP OR TWO' OF FUEL WAS DRAINED FROM THE TANKS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_DEN89FA177.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, fuel exhaustion). All research papers