Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / NYC90IA178

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event NYC90IA178

1990-07-29 NEW YORK, New York, United States Airport · JFK None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N175RA

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

AMERICAN CHAMPION AIRCRAFT 7GCBC

Year of manufacture

2002

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20020723

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A12D38

Registrant of record

BRABEC FRANK F

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE FLIGHT CREW'S FAILURE TO FOLLLOW THE LANDING GEAR EMERGENCY CHECKLIST. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE INCIDENT WERE: A JAMMED NOSE LANDING GEAR DUE TO THE INSTALLATION OF A BOGUS PART BY UNKNOWN PERSON(S) AND A DIRTY GEAR VIEWING WINDOW.

Factual narrative

THE FLIGHT CREW WAS UNABLE TO GET A DOWN AND LOCKED INDICATION OF THE NOSE GEAR AFTER SEVERAL ATTEMPTS OF BOTH NORMAL AND EMERGENCY EXTENSION. IN ADDITION, THE NOSE GEAR VIEW WINDOW WAS DIRTY, AND THE CREW WAS UNABLE TO DETERMINE IF THE NOSE GEAR WAS DOWN, AND THEY RECEIVED CONFLICTING GROUND REPORTS ABOUT WHETHER 0R NOT IT WAS DOWN. DURING LANDING, THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED. POST INCIDENT INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED A BOGUS PART INSTALLED IN THE NOSE LANDING GEAR DOWN LOCK ACTUATOR WHICH JAMMED, PREVENTING FULL EXTENSION. THE NOSE LANDING GEAR VIEW WINDOW WAS NOT A MAINTENANCE INSPECTION ITEM. INTERVIEWS WITH THE FLT CREW DISCLOSED THEY ATTEMPTED AN EXTENSION FOR TOTAL HYDRAULIC FAILURE AND THEN RESET THE SELECTOR VALVE PRIOR TO TOUCHDOWN. WHEN THE VALVE WAS RESET, THE PRESSURE ON THE NOSE LANDING GEAR THAT WAS OBTAINED BY USING THE HAND PUMP WAS RELEASED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_NYC90IA178.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, 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 ↗