LAX94LA314 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ) to Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA314
- 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
Piper PA-28R-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N4374X
- Operator
- Richard W. Winegarden · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ), Carlsbad, CATo Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Ground loop/swerve, not corrected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID HE WAS ON THE LANDING GROUND ROLL AND BEGAN APPLYING THE BRAKES. THE AIRCRAFT STARTED PULLING TO THE LEFT AND THE PILOT COULD NOT MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WITH FULL RIGHT RUDDER AND BRAKE. THE PILOT SAID THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO SLIDE AND THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR COLLAPSED. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY AN FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTOR WHO SAID HE DID NOT FIND ANY UNUSUAL HEAT SIGNATURES ON THE BRAKE DISKS, NOR ANY EVIDENCE OF A BRAKE SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. THERE WERE NO FLAT SPOTS ON EITHER OF THE MAIN TIRES AND ALL THREE TIRES EXHIBITED EVIDENCE OF SKID ABRASION 90 DEGREES TO THE TREAD. ABRASION MARKS ORIENTED 90 DEGREES TO THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS WERE OBSERVED UNDER THE RIGHT WING. THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR WAS COLLAPSED WITH THE EXTEND/RETRACT ROD END BROKEN AND THE ASSOCIATED SUPPORT BRACKET RIPPED OUT OF THE FORWARD SPAR. THE NOSE GEAR STRUT WAS FOUND BENT ABOUT 15 DEGREES TO THE LEFT. COMPLETE CONTINUITY WAS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN THE COCKPIT RUDDER PEDALS AND THE NOSE GEAR STEERING COLLAR.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain directional control of the aircraft resulting in a ground loop/swerve and a subsequent overload failure of the right main landing gear.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA314
- Event ID
- 20001206X02074
- Case number
- LAX94LA314
- 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: 211c0934f8945d9c09794b0ce7b987751ff8039fff6695ac4d948a5ec9c4c10b; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:50:04.403Z.