Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / LAX83IA080

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX83IA080

1983-01-23 SAN DIEGO, California, United States Airport · SAN None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N602TW

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

VAN'S AIRCRAFT RV-4

Engine

LYCOMING 0-360-A1D (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20000603

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A7D06B

Registrant of record

CHRYSALIDE LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

WHILE DESCENDING THRU 12,000 FT APRX 40 MI EAST OF SAN DIEGO, CA, THE LEFT OVERWING EVACUATION SLDE ANNUNCIATOR LIGHT ILLUMINATED. THE SLIDE SEPARATED FROM THE ACFT APRX 7 MI EAST OF THE ARPT. NO FLT CONTROL PROBLEMS WERE NOTED. INTEGRITY OF THE SYS WAS FOUND TO BE SATISFACTORY. THE EVACUATION SLIDE SQUIB & ACTUATOR HAD NOT BEEN ACTIVATED. THERE WERE INDICATIONS THAT THE INTEGRATOR LOCKING PIN HAD NOT BEEN FULLY SEATED, WHICH ALLOWED THE LATCH SHAFT TO MOVE AFT, THUS ALLOWING THE DOOR LATCHES TO RELEASE. DURING A MODIFICATION ON 1/22/83, THE LATCH ATTACH SCREWS HAD BEEN CHANGED. THIS MODIFICATION REQUIRED UNLATCHING THE LOCK PIN. AMBIGUITIES WERE FOUND IN THE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE FOR THE OFF- WING SLIDE; THE INSTRUCTIONS FAILED TO DESCRIBE THE MODE OF OPERATON WITH RESPECT TO TURNING DIRECTIONS OF THE LATCH- UNLATCH LEVERS. THIS WAS THE 4TH IN-FLT OVERWING SLIDE DEPLOYMENT. AS A RESULT OF THIS INCIDENT, BOEING BEGAN A DESIGN CHANGE OF THE INTEGRATOR MECHANISM. IN THE INTERIM, COMPLIANCE WITH SB 767-25-5 WAS REQUIRED BY 2/15/83. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1983_LAX83IA080.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 ↗