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Atlas / NTSB / LAX92LA077

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX92LA077

1991-12-27 CARSON CITY, Nevada, United States Airport · O04 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N9GF

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-46-310P

Year of manufacture

1988 · 3 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR TSIO-520 SER (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

6 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19880706

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AC6B16

Registrant of record

APRUDA ANDRI TRUSTEE

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ARREST AN EXCESSIVE SINK RATE RESULTING IN NOT ATTAINING THE PROPER TOUCH DOWN POINT AND LANDING SHORT OF THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS AN EXCESSIVE RUNWAY END LIP DUE TO INADEQUATE RUNWAY END MAINTENANCE.

Factual narrative

THE CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT, THE SOLE OCCUPANT, WAS LANDING AFTER CONDUCTING TOUCH AND GO TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS. DURING THE FINAL LANDING APPROACH, THE PILOT FAILED TO ARREST THE EXCESSIVE SINK AND THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT 12 INCHES SHORT OF THE PAVED END OF THE RUNWAY. THE PAVED RUNWAY WAS ABOUT 6 INCHES ABOVE THE SURROUNDING UNPAVED AREA. WHEN THE RIGHT LANDING GEAR STRUCK THE LIP OF THE RUNWAY, THE STRUT WAS BENT AFT ABOUT 20 DEGREES AND THE RIGHT WING RECEIVED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. THE FAA ADVISORY CIRCULAR RECOMMENDS THAT THE RUNWAY LIP DISTANCE TO THE SURROUNDING RUNWAY SAFETY AREA IS 1 AND 1/2 INCHES FOR DRAINAGE, WITH A MAXIMUM RECOMMENDED DISTANCE OF 3 INCHES. THE AIRPORT PERSONNEL FAILED TO MAINTAIN THESE RECOMMENDED DISTANCES. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_LAX92LA077.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 (maintenance). 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 ↗