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Atlas / NTSB / LAX93LA170

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX93LA170

1993-04-11 TORRANCE, California, United States Airport · TOA Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ATTAIN SUFFICIENT LIFT OFF AIRSPEED. FACTORS IN THIS ACCIDENT WERE THE PILOT'S OVERCONFIDENCE IN HIS PILOTING SKILLS, AND THE INADVERTENT STALL OF THE AIRPLANE.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT STATED THAT DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL HE GLANCED AT THE LIFT RESERVE INDICATOR WHICH INDICATED THAT HE HAD ENOUGH LIFT TO FLY. THE AIRPLANE IS MODIFIED WITH A WREN 460 STOL KIT. THE AIRSPEED OF THE AIRPLANE WAS APPROXIMATELY 35-40 KNOTS. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE AIRPLANE BEGAN A LEFT ROLLING MOTION. THE AIRPLANE DID NOT RESPOND TO ANY CORRECTIVE ACTION INITIATED BY THE PILOT. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE GROUND, LEFT WING TIP FIRST AND CAME TO REST BETWEEN THE TWO RUNWAYS. IN AN INTERVIEW WITH FAA INSPECTORS, THE PILOT STATED THAT THE 'STALL WARNING HORN WAS GOING OFF AS USUAL,' BUT HE CHOSE TO 'IGNORE IT AS USUAL.' ACCORDING TO THE WREN OPERATIONS MANUAL FOR THE AIRCRAFT, THE NORMAL TAKEOFF SPEED IS 60 MPH, AND A CLIMB SPEED OF 90 MPH. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1993_LAX93LA170.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 ↗