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Atlas / NTSB / NYC83FU009

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event NYC83FU009

1983-08-05 MAYVILLE, New York, United States Airport · D79 Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE ULTRALIGHT WAS IN LEVEL FLT AT APRX 150 TO 200 FT AGL WHEN THEY HEARD A LOUD BANG. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE ENG NOISE CEASED & THE VEHICLE ENTERED A SPIRALING DESCENT & CRASHED. A RIP IN THE WING CENTER SECTION WAS SEEN PRIOR TO IMPACT. AN EXAM REVEALED THAT THE LARGE REDUCTION ASSEMBLY, DRIVE PULLEY HAD SEPARATED FROM THE DRIVE SHAFT. 2 OF 4 CONNECTING BOLTS WERE FOUND FRACTURED & THE OTHER 2 HAD SEPARATED WITHOUT FRACTURING. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF LOOSENESS & FRETTING PRIOR TO THE BOLT FAILURES. RED PAINT HAD TRANSFERRED FROM THE PROP TIPS TO THE WING STRUTS. THEPROP TIPS HAD SEPARATED & THE WING FABRIC HAD TORN AT THE WING ROOTS ON EACH SIDE OF THE CENTER SECTION. THE FAILED & MISSING BOLTS HAD BEEN INSTALLED DURING A DRIVE SHAFT PULLEY ADAPTER HUB RETROFIT, APRX 3 FLT HRS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT,BEFORE THE PLT PURCHASED THE ULTRALIGHT FROM A PREVIOUS OWNER. NO WASHERS, TORQUE VALUES OR SAFETYING REQUIREMENTS WERE SPECIFIED FOR THE BOLTS IN THE RETROFIT INSTRUCTIONS & THE BOLTS HAD NOT BEEN SAFETY WIRED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1983_NYC83FU009.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 ↗