LAX89FA239 · Christen Industries A-1 HUSKY
Christen Industries A-1 HUSKY · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's operation. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA239
- 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
- Government Narrative disagrees
- 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
Christen Industries A-1 HUSKY
- Aircraft type
- Christen A-1
- 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
- N29162
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM), Yuma, AZTo 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, reduced
- Pilot in command › Stall, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CHRISTEN INDUSTRIES HUSKY A-1 OPERATED BY THE US BORDER PATROL AS A PUBLIC USE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH FLAT DESERT TERRAIN. THE PILOT WAS VISUALLY TRACKING FOOTPRINTS NEAR THE US-MEXICAN BORDER. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED ORBITING AT A LOW ALTITUDE SHORTLY BEFORE ENTERING A STEEP TURN DURING WHICH THE NOSE PITCHED DOWN. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE & A POST IMPACT FIRE ERUPTED. THE FLAPS WERE DETERMINED TO BE IN THE 20 DEG SETTING. THE REAR SEAT BACK ASSEMBLY WAS DETERMINED TO BE UNLATCHED AT THE TIME OF IMPACT, THE AIRPLANE FLIGHT MANUAL HAD PERFORMANCE INFORMATION CONCERNING STALL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AIRPLANE. THE MANUAL INDICATED AN ALTITUDE LOSS OF 150 FT DURING POWER OFF STALLS. THE AIRCRAFT FLIGHT MANUAL INDICATED THE USE OF 30 DEG FLAPS FOR ALL FLIGHT MANEUVERS REQUIRING FLAPS.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL. THE LACK OF ALTITUDE FOR RECOVERY WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA239
- Event ID
- 20001213X28857
- Case number
- LAX89FA239
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9020a92dc9e81a42af836d93a45dff62bd5763cb930572d8d1eb4bcf6012d358; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:14:22.707Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operation. The narrative states the Husky was "OPERATED BY THE US BORDER PATROL AS A PUBLIC USE AIRCRAFT" while tracking footprints near the border; the flight was a public aircraft operation, not Part 91 general aviation.