Airplane disasters in the USA: the cause of the crash in California 2025
1 february 2025 в 22:13
In January 2025, several aviation disasters occurred in the United States. A few weeks ago, there was a collision between an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, as well as a separate crash of a medical transport plane in Philadelphia. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified the cause of the plane crash that occurred in Fullerton, California, in early January.
A small plane crashed into a furniture warehouse near the airport in Fullerton, California.
Unfortunately, a father and daughter from Huntington Beach, California, died in the crash of a homemade plane near Fullerton.
According to the preliminary NTSB report, the crash was caused by a faulty door.
«As soon as the plane left the runway environment … it realized that its left door was open and raised», - the NTSB report stated, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. «It saw a hand go up and lower the door. By that time, the plane was far enough away that it could no longer see what was happening, and it assumed that the pilot was able to correct the situation».
Witnesses nearby noted that the plane was flying lower than usual and was heavily leaning to the left when transitioning from wind to base, NTSB reported. «Three people then saw the plane heavily lean to the left again, which they took as a final approach turn, all noting that they almost saw the full wing profile and were concerned that it might fall out of the sky. The plane then leaned to the right, the nose dropped, and it crashed into the warehouse, where a collision occurred in a fireball».
«The investigation of the plane wreckage showed that the pilot made several changes to the standard door locking system, including using solid steel pins for locking instead of the aluminum pins supplied, as well as replacing UHMW polyethylene door blocks with shaped aluminum blocks», - NTSB added in its report. «In addition, the secondary safety lock was not installed, and the door lock indicator system was modified».
NTSB also noted that the pilot’s plane apparently had only two regular switches, «each installed on the rear posts of both doors». LED warning lights were intended to indicate if the door was not fully closed, which was not the case on this plane.
«Thus, the modified system would not have warned the pilot if the front lock pins were not fully secured», - NTSB explained.
Since the beginning of 2025, several aviation disasters have occurred in the United States. Most of them occurred in January, including the collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Washington, a medical transport plane in Northeast Philadelphia, and a plane in Fullerton, California
A small plane crashed into a furniture warehouse near the airport in Fullerton, California.
Unfortunately, a father and daughter from Huntington Beach, California, died in the crash of a homemade plane near Fullerton.
According to the preliminary NTSB report, the crash was caused by a faulty door.
«As soon as the plane left the runway environment … it realized that its left door was open and raised», - the NTSB report stated, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. «It saw a hand go up and lower the door. By that time, the plane was far enough away that it could no longer see what was happening, and it assumed that the pilot was able to correct the situation».
Witnesses nearby noted that the plane was flying lower than usual and was heavily leaning to the left when transitioning from wind to base, NTSB reported. «Three people then saw the plane heavily lean to the left again, which they took as a final approach turn, all noting that they almost saw the full wing profile and were concerned that it might fall out of the sky. The plane then leaned to the right, the nose dropped, and it crashed into the warehouse, where a collision occurred in a fireball».
«The investigation of the plane wreckage showed that the pilot made several changes to the standard door locking system, including using solid steel pins for locking instead of the aluminum pins supplied, as well as replacing UHMW polyethylene door blocks with shaped aluminum blocks», - NTSB added in its report. «In addition, the secondary safety lock was not installed, and the door lock indicator system was modified».
NTSB also noted that the pilot’s plane apparently had only two regular switches, «each installed on the rear posts of both doors». LED warning lights were intended to indicate if the door was not fully closed, which was not the case on this plane.
«Thus, the modified system would not have warned the pilot if the front lock pins were not fully secured», - NTSB explained.
Since the beginning of 2025, several aviation disasters have occurred in the United States. Most of them occurred in January, including the collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Washington, a medical transport plane in Northeast Philadelphia, and a plane in Fullerton, California
© Artemenko Olga
