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Atlas / NTSB / DEN90FA170

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN90FA170

1990-08-17 SANTA FE, New Mexico, United States Airport · SAF Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N21CS

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 310Q

Year of manufacture

1973 · 17 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR I0-470 SERIES (260 hp)

Seats / Engines

6 seats · 2 engines

Last airworthiness date

19731120

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A1B76C

Registrant of record

HENDRIX PETER A

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL.

Factual narrative

WHILE MANEUVERING TO LAND, THE PILOT WAS TOLD TO GO AROUND. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A SPIN & CRASHED. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACCIDENT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EQUIPPED WITH STC NO:3A15, WHICH INVOLVED INSTALLATION OF DROOPED WING TIPS (DEMER SUPER TIPS) FOR IMPROVED CLIMB PERFORMANCE & CRUISE SPEED, AS WELL AS REDUCED STALL SPEED & TAKEOFF DISTANCE. THE PILOT'S BLOOD TESTED POSITIVE FOR ETHANOL (0.041%); HOWEVER, THE BLOOD SAMPLE WAS NOT CONSIDERED SUITABLE FOR ANALYSIS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_DEN90FA170.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). 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 ↗