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Atlas / NTSB / FTW83LA169

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW83LA169

1983-03-29 EL PASO, Texas, United States Airport · TX04 Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

ON A FLT AFTER AN ANNUAL INSPN, THE PLT COULD NOT RETRACT THE GEAR, USING THE NORMAL ELECTRICAL SYS. IT REMAINED EXTENDED WITH THE GREEN SAFE LIGHT ON & THE GEAR POINTER INDICATING DOWN. HE TRIED TO ASSIST THE NORMAL SYS WITH THE MANUAL HANDCRANK, ALTHOUGH THE PLT HANDBOOK DID NOT ALLOW THIS PRACTICE, BUT TO NO AVAIL. HE THEN USED THE HANDCRANK TO MOVE THE GEAR TO THE EXTENDED POSITION, BUT THE GREEN LIGHT WOULD NOT REILLUMINATE. THE PLT ELECTED TO LAND ON THE DIRT OVERRUN AREA, BUT DID NOT SEE A GRADED DIRT BANK, SHORT OF THE OVERRUN. THE GEAR HIT THE BANK & COLLAPSED DURING THE LANDING. THE LANDING GEAR CIRCUIT BREAKER WAS FOUND IN THE 'POPPED' POSITION. THE NORMAL & EMERGENCY GEAR SYS HAD BEEN CHECKED DURING THE ANNUAL INSPECTION. THE MECHANIC SAID THAT ALL BREAKERS WERE IN ON THE DAY BEFORE THE FLT. REPORTEDLY, THE PLT WAS UNAWARE OF A CHECKLIST ITEM TO ASSURE ALL BREAKERS WERE IN BEFORE STARTING THE ENG. THE INVESTIGATION DID NOT REVEAL WHEN OR WHY THE LANDING GEAR CIRCUIT BREAKER GOT INTO THE POPPED POSITION. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1983_FTW83LA169.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. 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 ↗