NYC82FNA20
1982-06-18 · MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Massachusetts, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport MVY
N71MA has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (AVIAT AIRCRAFT INC A-1B), which was not involved in this event.
Aircraft involved
Factual narrative
DURING AN ILS WITH THE AUTOPILOT COUPLER ON, A HIGH SINK RATE DEVELOPED TOWARD THE END OF THE APPROACH. THE PILOT UNCOUPLED THE AUTOPILOT AND BEGAN A MISSED APPROACH, BUT THE AIRCRAFT HIT THE TOP OF A TREE. HE DIVERTED AND LANDED AT PROVIDENCE, RI WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. AFTER LANDING, SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE OF THE RIGHT FLAP AND RIGHT PROPELLER WAS FOUND. A BENCH CHECK OF THE BENDIX FCS-810 AUTOPILOT REVEALED THAT THE TRANSISTORS IN THE GLIDE SLOPE WASH-OUT CIRCUIT WERE FAULTY. THEY WERE INTERMITTENTLY APPLYING A POSITIVE VOLTAGE THAT RESULTED IN A FALSE PITCH GYRO SIGNAL AND A DOWNWARD HARDOVER. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1982_NYC82FNA20.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (autopilot). All research papers
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- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint ROSplane 2.0: A Fixed-Wing Autopilot for Research
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research requires the integration of cutting-edge technology into existing autopilot frameworks.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint A Data-Driven Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft Based on Model Predictive Control
Autopilots for fixed-wing aircraft are typically designed based on linearized aerodynamic models consisting of stability and control derivatives obtained from wind-tunnel testing.
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint Experimental Flight Testing of a Fault-Tolerant Adaptive Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft
This paper presents an adaptive autopilot for fixed-wing aircraft and compares its performance with a fixed-gain autopilot.
- arXiv 2021 · arXiv preprint An Adaptive Digital Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft with Actuator Faults
This paper develops an adaptive digital autopilot for a fixed-wing aircraft and compares its performance with a fixed-gain autopilot.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint Robust Adaptive Sliding-Mode Control for Damaged Fixed-Wing UAVs
Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can remain aerodynamically flyable after sustaining structural or control surface damage, yet insufficient robustness in conventional autopilots often leads to mis…