FTW89FA089 · Smith, Ted Aerostar 601
Smith, Ted Aerostar 601 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Acadiana Regional Airport (ARA) to 22G · LORAIN-ELYRIA, OH
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89FA089
- 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
- 1 · 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
Smith, Ted Aerostar 601
- Aircraft type
- Smith Ted Aerostar 601
- 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
- N90619
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Acadiana Regional Airport (ARA)To 22G · LORAIN-ELYRIA, OH
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES SAW THE AIRPLANE DEPART AND LAST SAW AND HEARD IT WITH THE LANDING GEAR DOWN AND BOTH ENGINES RUNNING AT WHAT THEY CALLED NORMAL TAKEOFF POWER. EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE AIRPLANE THEN MADE A SHARP LEFT TURN AND DESCENDED TO THE GROUND, LEFT WING FIRST. EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE RIGHT ENGINE WAS DEVELOPING HIGH POWER WHILE THE LEFT ENGINE WAS DEVELOPING SOMEWHAT LESS THAN TAKEOFF POWER. TEARDOWN OF THE LEFT ENGINE REVEALED METAL EROSION ON THE TOP EDGES OF THE PISTONS WITH NO CORRESPONDING MARKS ON THE CYLINDER WALLS. SOME OF THIS EROSION WAS FROM PREVIOUS OPERATION AND SOME WAS FROM VERY RECENT OPERATION. THERE WAS NO TEARDOWN OF THE RIGHT ENGINE. OTHER THAN THE EROSION OF THE PISTONS, NOTHING WAS FOUND TO INDICATE ANY PREIMPACT PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRFRAME OR POWERPLANTS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN A PROPER CLIMB IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAKEOFF. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS EXCESSIVE MANIFOLD PRESSURE INDICATIONS FOR THE LEFT ENGINE. THE PILOT'S DIVERTED ATTENTION IN DEALING WITH THAT CONDITION MOST PROBABLY RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF CONTROL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89FA089
- Event ID
- 20001213X28313
- Case number
- FTW89FA089
- 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 1989-05-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4e0ff10d6b9c159ce661f43ed3d48af88ee70aea18e9a3592cbfe350178b3adc; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:20:09.438Z.