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Atlas / NTSB / LAX87FA084

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX87FA084

1987-01-13 PACOIMA, California, United States Airport · WHP Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N112DW

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

ROBINSON HELICOPTER R66

Year of manufacture

2020

TCDS

R00015LA · ROBINSON HELICOPTER CO

Engine

ROLLS-ROYC 250-C300/A1 (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

5 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20200306

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A03401

Registrant of record

GWYNNE 5 AVIATION ASSOCIATES LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

DURING INITIAL CLIMB AFTER TAKEOFF THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT AND COLLIDED WITH A LARGE WAREHOUSE. THE AIRFRAME WAS TOTALLY CONSUMED IN THE POST CRASH FIRE. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE SPARK PLUGS WERE EXCESSIVELY WORN WITH ELECTRODE GAPS MEASURED AT GREATER THAN .025 INCHES. MAXIMUM SERVICEABLE GAP FOR THE PLUGS IS .021 INCHES, WITH THE MOST DESIRED GAP RANGE FROM .016 TO .019. THE MAINTENANCERECORDS NOTED THAT THE LAST TIME NEW PLUGS WERE INSTALLED WAS IN NOVEMBER OF 1982, 493 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE PLUGS WERE RECONDITIONED IN JULY OF 1984, 392 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE PLUG MANUFACTURER INDICATES THAT GAPS IN EXCESS OF .025 REQUIRE EXCESSIVE VOLTAGE TO FIRE UNDER CYLINDER TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE CONDITIONS AT TAKEOFF POWER. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_LAX87FA084.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, maintenance). 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 ↗