CHI90DCG01 · George R. Losey J6-KARATOO
George R. Losey J6-KARATOO · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90DCG01
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
George R. Losey J6-KARATOO
- Aircraft type
- George R Losey J6
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N89BD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN DURING AN EMERGENCY DESCENT AFTER A BLADE TIP CAME OFF THE PROPELLER DURING INITIAL CLIMB. THE PILOT IN THE RIGHT SEAT STATED THAT HE ASSUMED CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AFTER THE PROPELLER FAILURE. HE ALSO STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE STALLED DURING A TURN TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT AND DESCENDED INTO THE GROUND. THE PILOT IN THE LEFT SEAT DOES NOT REMEMBER THE ACCIDENT. THE INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED THAT THE PROPELLER HAD BEEN MODIFIED (SHORTENED) AND NEW TIPS FABRICATED AND INSTALLED BY ONE OF THE OWNERS OF THE AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
THE PROPELLER BLADE SEPARATION DURING INITIAL CLIMB, AND THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT IN COMMAND TO MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED DURING THE EMERGENCY DESCENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90DCG01
- Event ID
- 20001212X23610
- Case number
- CHI90DCG01
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-07-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2630102116895c23be4ae01ebf40b069f691613fe4393e2ef117c202b4c0ac6f; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:39:29.390Z.