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LAX94LA340 · Beech D95A

27 Aug 1994 · Oakdale, CA, United States

Diamond K Aviation Beech D95A · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

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Event

NTSB case
LAX94LA340
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

Beech D95A

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 95
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
N4835J
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
Approach · VFR go-around
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

  • Airspeed(vmc) › Not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › In-flight planning/decision, improper
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THIS WAS THE STUDENT'S FIRST FLIGHT IN A MULTIENGINE FLIGHT TRAINING COURSE. AFTER 3 TAKEOFFS & LANDINGS AT THE AIRPORT, THE FLIGHT DEPARTED THE AREA, THEN RETURNED A FEW MINUTES LATER. WHEN THE CFI TRANSMITTED THEIR POSITION, A GROUND-BASED WITNESS (ALSO A MULTI-ENGINE CFI) HEARD THE SOUND OF A GEAR WARNING HORN IN THE BACKGROUND. THE WITNESS OPINED THAT THE FLIGHT WAS PRACTICING A SINGLE ENGINE APPROACH. THE WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT DESCEND TO ABOUT 30' AGL AS IT OVERFLEW THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY, THEN ENTER A SHALLOW CLIMBOUT. BEFORE REACHING THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY, THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A LEFT BANK. THE BANK ANGLE GRADUALLY INCREASED UNTIL BECOMING VERTICAL, AND THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO A FIELD NEXT TO THE AIRPORT. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. THE LEFT & RIGHT FUEL TANK SELECTORS WERE FOUND IN THE 'OFF' & 'MAIN TANK' POSITIONS, RESPECTIVELY. THE LEFT PROPELLER APPEARED TO HAVE BEEN IN THE FEATHER POSITION, THE RIGHT PROPELLER WAS TWISTED & BENT. THE CFI HAD GIVEN ABOUT 8 HOURS TOTAL OF MULTIENGINE INSTRUCTION (TO ANOTHER STUDENT) DURING THE 2.5 WEEKS SINCE HAVING BEEN ISSUED A MULTIENGINE INSTRUCTOR PILOT CERTIFICATE.

Probable cause

IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI), AND THE CFI'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY NOT ASSURING THAT THE MINIMUM CONTROL SPEED (VMC) WAS MAINTAINED. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE CFI'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN MULTI-ENGINE INSTRUCTIONAL TRAINING.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX94LA340
Event ID
20001206X02093
Case number
LAX94LA340
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 1994-08-28.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 9e07f72e3ece2a05255759d31b72195e166bb622e698060d4736e89fd2810d06; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:01:40.306Z.