NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX90LA141
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT'S POOR JUDGMENT IN ATTEMPTING A FLIGHT WHILE BEING FATIGUED DUE TO THE LACK OF SLEEP WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF CONTROL AND SUBSEQUENT OVERSTRESSING OF THE AIRPLANE.
Factual narrative
THE COMMUTER AIR CARRIER CAPTAIN'S LAST SCHEDULED FLIGHT HAD TERMINATED IN SACRAMENTO ON 3/31. HE INFORMED HIS CARRIER THAT HE WOULD LIKE TO BE LOCATED IN THE LOS ANGELES OR SANTA BARBARA AREA BY 4/1. THEY OFFERED THE AIRPLANE WHICH NEEDED TO BE REPOSITIONED TO SANTA BARBARA. HE HAD NEVER PILOTED THE AIRPLANE SOLO, BUT DID NOT WANT TO WAIT FOR A CO-PILOT. THE PILOT STATED HE CLIMBED TO 17,500 FT, TRIMMED THE AIRPLANE FOR CRUISE FLIGHT, AND 'DOZED OFF' SEVERAL TIMES. WHEN HE LAST AWOKE THE AIRPLANE WAS DESCENDING AT OVER 300 KTS (VNE IS 246 KTS). HE WAS ONLY ABLE TO RECOVER USING ELECTRIC TRIM. THE UPPER WING SKIN PANEL DAMAGE WAS LATER OBSERVED BY A PASSENGER ON A SUBSEQUENT FLIGHT. ACCORDING TO THE AIRPLANE'S MANUFACTURER, THE AIRPLANE WOULD HAVE HAD TO EXPERIENCE A CALCULATED LOAD FACTOR OF 7.8 G'S TO SUSTAIN THE OBSERVED DAMAGE TO THE WING SKIN PANELS, STRINGERS AND MAIN SPARS. THE PILOT STATED HE HAD ONLY SLEPT 1-1/2 TO 2 HRS DURING THE PRECEDING 24-HR PERIOD. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1990_LAX90LA141.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 (loss of control). 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 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
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