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Atlas / NTSB / LAX91LA189

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX91LA189

1991-04-30 FRESNO, California, United States Airport · FAT None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AND INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR WIND CONDITIONS DURING THE LANDING TOUCHDOWN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S OVERCONFIDENCE IN HIS ABILITY WHILE ANALYZING THE FORECAST WINDS DURING PREFLIGHT PLANNING, AND THE STRONG WIND CONDITIONS THAT EXISTED DURING HIS LANDING.

Factual narrative

A PIPER PA 38-112 COLLIDED WITH A SIGN POST AFTER A LOSS OF CONTROL ON RUNWAY 29R. THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AND THE AIRPLANE YAWED LEFT DURING THE LANDING FLARE AND TOUCHED DOWN WITH THE NOSE 20 DEGREES LEFT OF CENTERLINE. THE AIRPLANE THEN ROLLED OUT ACROSS THE RUNWAY SHOULDER AND STRUCK A SIGN POST WITH THE RIGHT WING. THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS WITH THE AIRPLANE BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE PILOT STATED, 'I MADE AN ERROR IN JUDGEMENT IN DEPARTING WITH SUCH STRONG FORECASTED WINDS. THE GREATEST ERROR WAS IN JUDGING THAT I WAS CAPABLE OF HANDLING THOSE WINDS.' THE WINDS AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WERE REPORTED TO BE FROM 322 DEGREES AT 25 KNOTS GUSTING TO 29 KNOTS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_LAX91LA189.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 (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.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗