Atlas / NTSB / LAX80FUA05

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX80FUA05

1979-12-10 AVALON, California, United States Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N8432C

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-28-140

Year of manufacture

1976 · 3 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19760122

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AB8D9F

Registrant of record

EMPIRE AVIATION

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N8432C Piper PA-28 Serious

Historical record (pre-1982)

NTSB recorded this accident in the pre-1982 coded-field schema — structured fields rather than free-text narrative. Decoded codes use established NTSB single-letter taxonomies; cause factors remain verbatim pending the Form 6120.4 codebook lookup.

Aircraft

PIPER PA-28 · N8432C

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

C4

Operator type

Personal/private

Airport

CATALINA

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

300° / 7 kt

Temp

57° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0028-7610077

Total time

824 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

171

Age

21

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

RAN OF END.LEFT COWL FASTNERS FOUND UNLATCHED.

Investigator remarks

LEFT TOP ENG COWL OPENED ON TAKEOFF,PLT ABORTED,

Cause factors

64/A/29 A
PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
88/A/29 A
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS IMPROPERLY SECURED Cause — pilot/personnel action
88/J/DH J
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS RAN OFF END OF RUNWAY Joint cause

Decoded against the NTSB Form 6120.4 cause-factor codebook (ct_Pre1982 table). Each row shows the raw triplet, modifier (Cause / Factor / etc.), category, and specific code.

Source: NTSB pre-1982 historical archive. Docket 3 3749. Source file NTSB_1979_3_3749.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Beyond the agency record

Search this event elsewhere.

Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.

TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press

Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.

NTSB CAROL Agency ↗

Official agency record + docket.

NTSB Docket Agency ↗

Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.

Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗

Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).

Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗

Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.

Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗

Gold-standard aviation incident blog.