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Atlas / NTSB / LAX90FA070

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX90FA070

1990-01-18 BURBANK, California, United States Airport · BUR Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N8251B

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

SMITH DAVID B RANS S7 COURIER

Year of manufacture

1994

Engine

BOMBARDIER ROTAX (ALL)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20260130

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AB45EB

Registrant of record

SCHROEDER DALE R

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

POOR JUDGEMENT OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) DUE TO HIS IMPAIRMENT FROM USE OF MARIJUANA, INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT BY THE CFI, AND HIS FAILURE TO ASSURE THAT ADEQUATE AIRSPEED WAS MAINTAINED, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE CFI'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING/PREPARATION, AND HIS FAILURE TO ASSURE THE AIRCRAFT WAS WITHIN ITS CERTIFIED GROSS WEIGHT LIMIT.

Factual narrative

THE ACFT WAS SCHEDULED FOR A NGT INSTRUMENT TRAINING FLT WITH 2 ADDITIONAL PLTS ABOARD, WHO WERE SEEKING INSTRUMENT RATINGS. SHORTLY AFTER TAKING OFF FROM RWY 7, THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) RADIOED TO THE TOWER THAT AN IMMEDIATE LNDG WAS NECESSARY, BUT HE DID NOT GIVE A REASON. THE FLT WAS CLRD TO LAND. THE ACFT WAS THEN OBSERVED TO ENTER A STEEP LEFT TURN AT LOW ALT & DESCEND ABRUPTLY. IT CRASHED IN A STEEP DESCENT ABOUT 500 FT NORTH OF RWY 7 ON A HEADING OF ABOUT 260 DEG. IMPACT OCCURRED IN A LEFT WING LOW, NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT OR ENG WAS FOUND. TESTS OF THE CFI'S BLOOD SHOWED THAT IT CONTAINED 1 NG/ML OF DELTA-9-TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL (A PSYCHOACTIVE COMPONENT OF MARIJUANA) & 7 NG/ML OF DELTA-9-TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL CARBOXYLIC ACID (A METABOLITE OF MARIJUANA). GROSS WT OF THE ACFT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 2411 LBS; ITS MAX CERTIFIED GROSS WT WAS 2325 LBS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_LAX90FA070.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 ↗