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LAX89LA322

1989-09-24 · AUBURN, California, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport AUN

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT ACTIVATION OF NOSE DOWN TRIM WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF CONTROL AND COLLISION WITH A TREE. CONTRIBUTING FACTOR(S) WAS: THE PILOT'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN THIS TYPE OF AIRPLANE.

Factual narrative

THIS WAS PILOT'S FIRST SOLO IN THIS AIRCRAFT AFTER LAST HOUR WITH A CFI. THE PILOT REPORTED HE PROBABLY STALLED THE AIRCRAFT DURING THE APPROACH. HE INDICATED HE ACCIDENTLY MOVED THE TRIM KNOB TO THE NOSE DOWN POSITION INSTEAD OF USING THE THROTTLE KNOB TO CORRECT FOR A LOW APPROACH. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_LAX89LA322.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, loss of control). All research papers