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Atlas / NTSB / LAX90LA059

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX90LA059

1989-12-29 SANTA BARBARA, California, United States Airport · SBA None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N8138E

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

STODDARD HAMILTON GLASTAR GLASTAR SH-4

Year of manufacture

1999

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19990326

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AB17F6

Registrant of record

MORRIS JOHN A

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE TERRAIN CLEARANCE DURING A NIGHT VISUAL APPROACH.

Factual narrative

THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A HILL DURING A NIGHT VISUAL APPROACH. THE PILOT STATED THAT THERE WAS SOME TURBULENCE ON THE APPROACH, AND THAT THE APPROACH LOOKED LIKE A 'BLACK HOLE'. HE ALSO STATED THAT HE WAS TOO LOW. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_LAX90LA059.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 (turbulence). 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 ↗