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Atlas / NTSB / LAX82DA092

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX82DA092

1982-03-02 CHANDLER, Arizona, United States Airport · P19 Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N38857

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER J3F-65

Year of manufacture

1941 · 41 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR A-65 SER (65 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19560723

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A47C29

Registrant of record

SALE REPORTED

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

WHILE ON A DOWNWIND LEG OF THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, THE PILOT NOTICED A VERY LOUD GRINDING NOISE AS IF THE ENGINE WAS COMING APART. HE STATED THAT THE ENGINE RPM BECAME VERY HIGH. HE ATTEMPTED TO MANEUVER FOR A LANDING ON THE RUNWAY BUT ENTERED A HIGH SINK RATE. THE PILOT THEN REALIZED THAT HE WOULD BE UNABLE TO REACH THE RUNWAY AND ELECTED TO LAND BESIDE A ROAD. HE WAS UNABLE TO COMPLETELY STOP THE SINK RATE WHILE FLARING TO LAND. THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN HARD, THE GEAR COLLAPSED, AND THE FUSELAGE FAILED. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PROPELLER WAS FOUND IN THE VICINITY OF THE DOWNWIND LEG WHERE IT HAD SEPARATED FROM THE AIRCRAFT. THE PROPELLER HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY REMOVED FROM THE AIRCRAFT WHILE IT WAS IN STORAGE TO PREVENT THE PLANE FROM BEING STOLEN. THE PILOT BELIEVED THAT THE PROPELLER WAS IMPROPERLY SECURED WHEN REINSTALLED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1982_LAX82DA092.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 or causal vocabulary (stall). 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 ↗