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Atlas / NTSB / FTW82FPD14

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW82FPD14

1982-06-11 ABILENE, Texas, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N5DM

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PILATUS PC-12/45

Year of manufacture

2000

Engine

P&W CANADA PT6A-67B (1200 hp)

Seats / Engines

12 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20001219

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A63595

Registrant of record

GUARDIAN FLIGHT LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

ABOUT 5 MIN AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PILOT INITIATED A HIGH SPEED LOW PASS OVER THE AIRPORT. WHEN THE AIRCRAFT WAS ABOUT 1000 FT FROM THE AIRPORT AT ABOUT 100 FT AGL, THE RICHT WINGLET SEPARATED. A WITNESS ESTIMATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT'S SPEED WAS ABOUT 200 MPH. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PLANE ROLLED INVERTED AND CRASHED. AN EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE WINGLET WAS NOT INSTALLED IN ACCORDANCE TO THE DESIGNER'S PLANS. SPECIFICALLY, THE PLANS CALLED FOR AN 8-PLY FIBERGLASS BUILD-UP ON THE OUTSIDE RADIUS FROM THE LOWER WING TO THE OUTSIDE SURFACE OF THE WINGLET. THIS BUILD-UP WAS NOT INCORPORTED. THE DESIGNER ESTIMATED THAT IT HAD LESS THAN 1/20 OF THE DESIGN STRENGTH. AT HIGH SPEED, WITH ZERO SIDE SLIP, THERE IS AN INWARD AERODYNAMIC (BENDING) LOAD ON THE WINGLET THAT IS EQUIVALENT TO A 15 DEG SIDE SLIP AT LOW SPEED. THIS WINGLET HAD FAILED INWARD. ALSO, A NUMBER OF OTHER DEVIATIONS FROM THE DESIGNERS PLANS WERE NOTED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1982_FTW82FPD14.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 ↗