Skip to content

FTW90FA168

1990-08-26 · BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport BTR

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL DURING THE STEEP TURN. A FACTOR WAS THE DOOR OPENING IN FLIGHT.

Factual narrative

THE PRIVATE PILOT RECEIVED HIS PILOT'S LICENSE THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. ON THE ACCIDENT DAY, HE HAD GIVEN HIS MOTHER A RIDE, THEN TOOK UP HIS FATHER. TOWER SAID TAKEOFF AND CLIMB WAS NORMAL TO 200 TO 300 FEET AGL. PILOT SAID HE TURNED AROUND FOR IMMEDIATE LANDING, THEN SAID, 'I CAN'T HEAR YOU.' FROM A NOSE HIGH, STEEP LEFT BANK, THE AIRPLANE WENT TO THE GROUND. IT IMPACTED NEAR VERTICAL. WITNESS FIRST SAID HE HEARD A LOUD BANG, THEN SAW AIRPLANE ON THE GROUND. HE LATER SAID HE HEARD A SPUTTERING SOUND, THEN HEARD A LOUD BANK, THEN SAW THE AIRPLANE ON THE GROUND. WITH IMPACT DAMAGE REPAIRED OR REPLACED, ON TEST STAND, ENGINE LATER RAN TO 2,710 RPM. DURING INVESTIGATION, RIGHT DOOR WAS FOUND WITH DIAGONAL IMPACT MARK THAT MATCHED RIGHT WING STRUT. THE RIGHT DOOR LOCK AND THE DOOR-POST-LOCK- RECEPTACLE WERE NOT DAMAGED. THERE WAS PAINT MATCHING THE RIGHT DOOR, ON THE RIGHT WING STRUT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_FTW90FA168.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

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