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Atlas / NTSB / LAX85FA251

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX85FA251

1985-05-10 HAYWARD, California, United States Airport · HWD Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N2022B

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

AIR TRACTOR INC AT-802A

Year of manufacture

2011

Engine

P&W CANADA PT6A-65AG (1300 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20111213

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A19C11

Registrant of record

WIL-CO FLYING SERVICE LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

ACCORDING TO THE ATCT TAPES, 3 MINS ELAPSED BETWEEN THE TIME THE ACFT CALLED FOR TAXI FROM PARKING TO READY FOR TAKEOFF AT THE ACTIVE RWY. JUST AFTER LIFTOFF THE ACFT EXPERIENCED A 'MISSING' & 'BACKFIRING' ENGINE AS REPORTED BY WITNESSES. PLT RADIOED THE TOWER THAT HE WAS HAVING PROBLEMS, WAS RETURNING TO THE ARPT & 'MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE A 180.' AT ABOUT 200 FT AGL ON A CLOSE CROSSWIND LEG, WITNESSES SAW THE ACFT MAKE A TIGHT STEEPLY BANKED RT TURN TO LINE UP WITH A TAXIWAY JUST PRIOR TO THE ACFT ABRUPTLY PITCHING DOWN, ROLLING RT & IMPACTING ON GOLF COURSE FAIRWAY. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE ENGINE DRIVEN FUEL PUMP DID NOT WORK WHEN INSTALLED IN A TEST STAND. BOTH RUST & CORROSION DEPOSITS WERE FOUND IN THE PUMP & FUEL METERING UNITS. THE ACFT HAD ACCUMULATED 909 HRS IN 10 YRS TIME WITHOUT AN ENGINE OR COMPONENT OVERHAUL. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1985_LAX85FA251.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 ↗