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Atlas / NTSB / LAX92LA003

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX92LA003

1991-10-03 PALO ALTO, California, United States Airport · PAO Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3318E

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172N

Year of manufacture

1978 · 13 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19780913

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A39CFB

Registrant of record

RODRIGUEZ JOSE R

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

AN INFLIGHT LOS OF CONTROL DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO CORRECTLY CONFIGURE THE RUDDER TRIM FOR TAKEOFF.

Factual narrative

THE STUDENT PILOT SAID SHE WAS PRACTICING SOFT FIELD TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS DURING THE SOLO INSTRUCTIONAL SESSION. GROUND WITNESSES AT THE AIRPORT REPORTED THAT THE AIRCRAFT ACHIEVED A VERY STEEP CLIMB ANGLE AFTER ROTATION FOR THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB. THE AIRCRAFT THEN BEGAN DRIFTING TO THE LEFT IN A NOSE HIGH DESCENT ATTITUDE AND THE LEFT WING COLLIDED WITH A TREE ON A GOLF COURSE ADJACENT TO THE AIRPORT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTORS. CONTROL SYSTEM CONTINUITY WAS ESTABLISHED THROUGHOUT THE AIRCRAFT. NO ABNORMAL SYSTEM CONDITIONS WERE NOTED DURING THE EXAMINATION. THE RUDDER TRIM CONTROL WAS FOUND POSITIONED AT ABOUT 50 PERCENT TO THE LEFT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_LAX92LA003.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 (icing). 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 ↗