NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX93LA358
Registry · N2485K
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
LUSCOMBE 8E
Year of manufacture
1947 · 46 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR C85 SERIES (85 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A250C8
Registrant of record
KAPLAN SAMUEL
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS. THE ROUGH/UNEVEN TERRAIN WAS A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT.
Factual narrative
On September 19, 1993, at 1130 hours Pacific daylight time, the right wing of a Luscombe 8E, N2485K, struck the ground and crashed shortly after taking off from runway 18L at Napa Airport, Napa, California. The pilot was beginning a local visual flight rules personal flight. The airplane, registered to and operated by the pilot, sustained substantial damage. Neither the certificated private pilot nor the certificated private pilot/passenger were injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The first pilot reported in the Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report, NTSB Form 6120.1/2, that the engine suddenly lost power shortly after lift off. The pilot elected to land on the freshly plowed field next to the runway. The FAA, Sacramento Flight Standards District Office, did not conduct an on-scene investigation; the engine was not examined. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF. THE CAUSE OF THE LOSS OF POWER WAS NOT DETERMINED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1993_LAX93LA358.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Transonic Experimental Observations of Abrupt Wing Stall on an F/A-l8E Model
A transonic wind tunnel test of an 8% F/A-18E model was conducted in the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) 16 ft Transonic Tunnel (16-ft TT) to investigate on-surface flow physics during stall.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Transonic Experimental Observations of Abrupt Wing Stall on an F/A-18E Model (Invited)
A transonic wind tunnel test of an 8% F/A-18E model was conducted in the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) 16 ft Transonic Tunnel (16-ft TT) to investigate on-surface flow physics during stall.
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