NTSB CAROL · Event
Event FTW89FA134
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
A LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE DUE TO THE PILOT'S INABILITY TO RAISE THE FLAPS WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL. THE FLAP FAILURE AND SUBSEQUENT FULL FLAP TAKEOFF WERE THE RESULT OF THE OPERATOR'S IMPROPER MAINTENANCE OF THE AIRPLANE AND THE OPERATOR'S USE OF A CUSTOM CHECKLIST THAT DEVIATED SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THE MANUFACTURER'S APPROVED CHECKLIST. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ENSURE THAT THE FLAPS WERE FULLY RETRACTED PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, AND THE OPERATOR'S INADEQUATE INITIAL TRAINING OF THE PILOT.
Factual narrative
IMMEDIATELY AFTER LIFTOFF THE NEWLY-CERTIFICATED PILOT BECAME AWARE THAT THE FLAPS WERE FULL DOWN. HE WAS UNABLE TO RAISE THEM AND THE AIRCRAFT STALLED WHILE IN A CLOSED TRAFFIC PATTERN. AN AGS-15 NON-SLOBLO FUSE WAS FOUND TO BE BLOWN. THE FLAP DOWN LIMIT SWITCH WAS OUT OF ADJUSTMENT RESULTING IN THE JACKSCREW TRAVELING TO THE MECHANICAL LIMIT & EVENTUALLY CAUSING AN ELECTRICAL OVERLOAD. THE FUSE WAS REPLACED TWICE WITHIN THE PREVIOUS 45 DAYS. FOUR OTHER AIRCRAFT OF THE OPERATOR'S FLEET ALSO HAD INCORRECT FUSES INSTALLED. THE PILOT HAD LOWERED THE FLAPS FOR HIS WALK-AROUND. THE OPERATOR (SCHOOL) HAD DEVELOPED THEIR OWN CHECKLIST DIFFERENT FROM THAT CONTAINED IN THE APPROVED OWNER'S MANUAL. THIS CHECKLIST CALLED FOR LOWERING OF FLAPS DURING PRE-START INSPECTION AND RAISING OF FLAPS DURING AFTER-START. THE CHECKLIST DID NOT CONTAIN A SPECIFIC ENTRY TO CHECK THAT THE FLAPS WERE UP PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_FTW89FA134.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, loss of control, 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.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
- Semantic Scholar 2016 · Article (Interacción)
Trajectory Recovery System: Angle of Attack Guidance for Inflight Loss of Control
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- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2010 · Accident report
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- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2002 · Accident report
Loss of Control and Impact with Pacific Ocean — Alaska 261
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 (MD-83) Pacific Ocean, January 31, 2000 — 88 fatalities. Definitive investigation of the Alaska 261 pitch-runaway-and-loss-of-control crash.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
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