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Atlas / NTSB / LAX92FA188

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX92FA188

1992-04-25 RENO, Nevada, United States Airport · RNO Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3121V

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

NEW PIPER AIRCRAFT INC PA-28-181

Year of manufacture

2006

Engine

LYCOMING O-360-A4M (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20060314

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A350CE

Registrant of record

COCHISE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S POORLY PLANNED APPROACH TO COMPENSATE FOR THE EXISTING WIND CONDITIONS, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT CONTACTED APPROACH CONTROL AT 1720 WITH INFORMATION 'NOVEMBER' FOR RADAR SERVICE TO HIS DESTINATION. ATIS 'NOVEMBER' HAD BEEN RECORDED AT 1650 AND REPORTED THE WINDS AS 210 DEG AT 8 KTS. AT 1724, THE PILOT WAS TOLD TO CONTACT THE TOWER. AT 1725, THE PILOT WAS CLEARED TO LAND ON RUNWAY 16 RIGHT. WITNESSES REPORTED THE PILOT MADE A CONSTANT TURN FROM DOWNWIND TO FINAL. THE AIRPLANE OVERSHOT FINAL AND APPEARED TO STEEPEN ITS BANK. THE AIRPLANE ENTERED AN ACCELERATED STALL FROM A LOW ALTITUDE ON THE TURN TO FINAL, AND FELL TO THE GROUND NOSE FIRST. THE PILOT'S LAST COMMUNICATION WITH THE TOWER RECORDED AT 1728:58 WAS WHEN HE SAID 'TWO ONE VICTOR'S.' THAT IS ABOUT THE TIME THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED FALLING TO THE GROUND. A WEATHER OBSERVATION TAKEN AT 1731 REPORTED WINDS FROM 290 DEG AT 13 KTS. WITH WINDS FROM THAT DIRECTION, THE PILOT HAD A LEFT QUARTERING TAIL WIND ON BASE AND A RIGHT QUARTERING TAIL WIND ON FINAL. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1992_LAX92FA188.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 ↗