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Atlas / NTSB / LAX91FA156

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX91FA156

1991-04-03 SANTA PAULA, California, United States Airport · SZP Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N45EM

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

SCHLEICHER ASW-27

Year of manufacture

1996

Engine

NONE NONE

Seats / Engines

1 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19960222

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A57033

Registrant of record

GLAAB LOUIS J

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THAT THE PILOT INADVERTENTLY SELECTED THE WRONG FUEL TANK AND THE PASSENGER INTERFERED WITH THE FLIGHT CONTROLS WHEN THE SEAT BACK FAILED.

Factual narrative

SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF ON RUNWAY 22 THE TANDEM SEATING AIRPLANE EXPERIENCED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER FOLLOWED BY THE AIRPLANE'S NOSE PITCHING UP RAPIDLY AND THEN STALL. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A GOLF CART AND BURST INTO FLAMES. BOTH OCCUPANTS WERE KILLED FROM THE RESULTING POST IMPACT FIRE. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT ONLY THE PILOT WAS OBSERVED AT THE TIME THE AIRPLANE PITCHED UP. THE PILOT WAS FOUND LYING FORWARD AND THE REAR SEAT OCCUPANT WAS LYING SUPINE PARTLY IN THE AFT FUSELAGE. EXAMINATION DISCLOSED THE REAR SEAT PASSENGER'S SEAT FAILED IN A REARWARD DIRECTION AND THAT THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS SELECTED TO THE OFF POSITION. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_LAX91FA156.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 ↗