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Atlas / NTSB / LAX86IA021

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX86IA021

1985-10-24 OAKLAND, California, United States Airport · OAK None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N6815A

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172

Year of manufacture

1956 · 29 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR 0-300 SER (145 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19560629

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A909F6

Registrant of record

N6815A LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

ON OCTOBER 24, 1985, AN AMERICAN AIRLINES 727 COLLIDED WITH A PARKED UNITED AIRLINES 727 DURING A POWER BACK OPERATION AT OAKLAND, CA. IMC EXISTED AT THE TIME WITH VISIBILITY LIMITED TO 0 FT DUE TO FOG. THE AA AC SUSTAINED MINOR DAMAGE TO ITS LEFT WING AND THE UA AC RECIEVED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO ITS TR WG. AA HAD TWO WING WALKERS AND A LEAD WALKER POSITIONED AT THE NOSE OF THE AA AC. THE LEAD PERSON STATED HER GOGGLES HAD FOGGED OVER AND COULDN'T CLEARLY SEE THE OTHER WING WALKERS. ADDTIONALLY, THE WANDS USED BY LEAD AND THE LT WING WALKER WERE INOPERATIVE. ACCORDING TO OTHER WITNESSES, LEAD DID NOT SEE THE STOP SIGNAL GIVEN BY THE LEFT WING WALKER. LEAD SAID SHE THOUGHT THERE WAS SUFFICIENT CLEARANCE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1985_LAX86IA021.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 (imc). 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 ↗