Skip to content

FTW90LA173

1990-09-02 · DALLAS, Texas, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport F69

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CREW COORDINATION IN THE COCKPIT, AND THE STUDENT PILOT'S PREMATURE RETRACTION OF THE FLAPS DURING A CRITICAL MANEUVER. FACTORS WERE THE CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTORS INADEQUATE SUPERVISION AND THE INADVERTENT LOW ALTITUDE STALL.

Factual narrative

DURING AN INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT AT 20 FEET ABOVE THE RUNWAY THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT WAS DEMONSTRATING MINIMUM AIRSPEED FLIGHT. DURING THE RECOVERY PHASE THE STUDENT PILOT RETRACTED THE FLAPS WITHOUT INSTRUCTION FROM THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT OR WITHOUT PROVIDING HIM WITH ADVANCED WARNING. THE ACTIONS OF THE STUDENT PILOT RESULTED IN THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT LOSING CONTROL AND IMPACTING THE GROUND RESULTING IN SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_FTW90LA173.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