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LAX88FA204

1988-05-30 · ELOY, Arizona, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport E60

N27463 has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BOEING 737-9), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT DURING TAKEOFF CLIMB RESULTING IN AN INADVERTENT SPIRAL. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRCRAFT MAKE AND MODEL.

Factual narrative

SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, DURING TAKEOFF CLIMB, AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED OUT OF CONTROL SPIRALLING TO GROUND. PILOT HAD RESTORED THE AIRCRAFT AND HAD ONLY 12 HOURS OF FLIGHT EXPERIENCE IN MAKE AND MODEL. PILOT HAD FAILED HIS FIRST FLIGHT TEST FOR PRIVATE PILOT RATING 17 MONTHS PRIOR TO ACCIDENT. IMPROPER USE OF FLIGHT CONTROLS DURING STALL RECOVERY WAS CITED IN NOTICE OF DISAPPROVAL. THERE WAS NO RECORD OF PILOT RECEIVING FORMAL TRAINING IN ACCIDENT AIRCRAFT MAKE AND MODEL. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1988_LAX88FA204.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers