LAX94LA104 · Beech 58
Beech 58 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA104
- 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
Beech 58
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N1082W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Francisco, CATo 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, 100-hour inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Modesto, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE EXPERIENCED ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTING THE AIRPORT IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. THE ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS RENDERED THE COMMUNICATIONS, NAVIGATION, AND MOST OF THE ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS INOPERABLE. THE PILOT CONTINUED TOWARD THE DESTINATION AIRPORT. THE PILOT ENCOUNTERED VMC CONDITIONS ABOUT 39 MILES NORTHWEST OF THE DESTINATION AIRPORT. THE PILOT DID NOT MANUALLY LOWER THE LANDING GEAR BEFORE ENTERING THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT. HE ELECTRICALLY EXTENDED THE LANDING GEAR WHEN ON THE DOWNWIND LEG. HE HEARD THE LANDING GEAR GO DOWN, BUT THE LANDING GEAR DOWN LIGHT DID NOT ILLUMINATE. THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED DURING THE LANDING ROLL-OUT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DISCLOSED THAT ONE OF THE BATTERY'S POSITIVE LEADS WAS CORRODED. A MECHANIC HAD PERFORMED A 50-HOUR INSPECTION ABOUT 37 1/2 FLIGHT HOURS PRECEDING THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PERFORM THE EMERGENCY LANDING GEAR EXTENSION AND OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL'S INADEQUATE 100-HOUR INSPECTION. THE PARTIAL ELECTRICAL FAILURE AND THE PILOT APPREHENSION/ANXIETY DUE TO A POSSIBLE ELECTRICAL FIRE WERE FACTORS IN THIS ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA104
- Event ID
- 20001206X00648
- Case number
- LAX94LA104
- 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: 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: 7301eab3083c5f6b3d42eebb943c7f12b75be5c1caf677668f0e6be472897139; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:22:18.529Z.