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Atlas / NTSB / LAX87FA085

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX87FA085

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

Registry · N1067W

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

MOONEY M20J

Year of manufacture

1998

Engine

LYCOMING I0360 SER A&C (200 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19980131

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A01E60

Registrant of record

GRAHAM JAMES M

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE WINDS AT THE AIRPORT HAD BEEN REPORTED AS STRONG AND GUSTING. AFTER HIS PASSENGERS ARRIVED, THE PILOT REQUESTED AND RECEIVED TAXI INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ACTIVE RUNWAY WHICH WAS APRX 3700 FT FROM HIS PARKING SPACE. ABOUT 2-1/2 MINS AFTER RECEIVING HIS TAXI CLEARANCE, THE PILOT REQUESTED AND RECEIVED TAKEOFF INSTRUCTIONS. GROUND WITNESSES STATED THAT AFTER THE AIRCRAFT TOOK OFF, IT CLIMBED TO APRX 100 TO 200 FT, THEN ROLLED LEFT, ENTERED A STEEP DIVE & CRASHED. ABOUT 5 SEC LATER, A POST-CRASH FIRE ERUPTED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THE GUST LOCK PIN WAS FOUND NEAR THE CONTROL COLUMN. THE PIN WAS BENT & THE GUST LOCK PIN HOLE IN THE CONTROL COLUMN WAS ELONGATED AS THOUGH IT HAD BEEN FORCED REARWARD WITH THE PIN INSTALLED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_LAX87FA085.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 ↗