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Atlas / NTSB / LAX87LA061

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX87LA061

1986-12-06 SAN RAFAEL, California, United States Airport · CA35 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N759DH

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 182Q

Year of manufacture

1977 · 9 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19770728

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AA3BCB

Registrant of record

HENKE NICHOLAS

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

DURING AN INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, THE STUDENT PILOT WAS NOT ALIGNED PROPERLY WITH THE RUNWAY. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) TOOK CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT ON FINAL, BUT HE STATED THAT IT DID NOT RESPOND WHEN HE APPLIED RUDDER CONTROL. AFTER TOUCHDOWN, THE AIRCRAFT SWERVED TO THE RIGHT, RAN OFF THE RUNWAY AND COLLIDED WITH A FENCE. NO MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS FOUND WITH THE RUDDER CONTROL. THE CESSNA NAVOMATIC AUTOPILOT WAS FOUND TO BE IN THE 'ON' POSITION. IT WAS AN ELECTRIC, SINGLE-AXIS, AILERON CONTROL UNIT THAT DID NOT AFFECT RUDDER CONTROL. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1986_LAX87LA061.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 (autopilot). 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 ↗