NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX89FA140
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ATTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED BEFORE MANEUVERING (TURNING) BACK TOWARD THE AIRPORT, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: IMPROPER MAINTENANCE/INSTALLATION OF A FUEL INJECTOR REFERENCE AIR LINE, WHICH ALLOWED CONTAMINATION OF THE INJECTORS AND LOSS OF POWER IN THE RIGHT ENGINE.
Factual narrative
SVRL MECHANIC WITNESSES AT THE ARPT SAID THE RGT ENG BACKFIRED & TRAILED BLACK SMOKE DURING THE TAKEOFF GROUND ROLL. RPRTDLY, THE TAKEOFF ROLL WAS ABOUT 80% LONGER THAN NORMAL. WITNESSES SAID THE ACFT STAGGERED OFF THE GROUND, WAS SLOW & NEVER GOT ABOVE 100 FEET AGL. THE PLT RPRTD TO THE TOWER THAT THE FLT HAD TO COME BACK TO THE RWY. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, WITNESSES SAW THE ACFT ENTER A STEEP LEFT TURN, APPARENTLY STALL, THEN CRASH INTO SOME TENNIS COURTS. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED EVIDENCE THAT THE RGT ENG HAD LOST POWER. A MODIFICATION KIT FOR THE FUEL INJECTOR REFERENCE AIR LINES WAS INCORRECTLY INSTALLED & ALLOWED AN UNFILTERED AIR SOURCE. SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF RESIDUE (FROM THE RGT ENG TURBO CHARGER COMPRESSOR) REVEALED THAT IT HAD THE SAME COMPOSITION AS THE ALTERNATE AIR DOOR SEAL. TRACES OF THE MATERIAL WERE FOUND IN THE FUEL INJECTOR REFERENCE AIR LINE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_LAX89FA140.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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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.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
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