LAX94LA345 · Cessna 310L
Feuerhelm Transportation Cessna 310L · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid on approach
From Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH) to L70
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA345
- 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
Cessna 310L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N3272X
- Operator
- Feuerhelm Transportation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH), Mammoth Lakes, CATo L70
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT OWNER, WHO IS ALSO A PILOT, SAID THE AIRCRAFT AND PILOT DEPARTED VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, ON THE MORNING OF THE ACCIDENT, STOPPED AT AGUA DULCE TO PICK UP THE OWNER AND THE OTHER PASSENGERS, THEN PROCEEDED TO MAMMOTH LAKES FOR A BUSINESS MEETING. THE AIRCRAFT WAS RETURNING THE PASSENGERS TO AGUA DULCE WHEN THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED. THE PILOT AND THE AIRCRAFT OWNER BOTH SAID THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRCRAFT. THE PILOT WAS ON SHORT FINAL APPROACH TO RUNWAY 22 WHEN THE AIRCRAFT DRIFTED RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT ELECTED TO DO A GO-AROUND AND APPLIED FULL POWER; BOTH THE PILOT AND THE AIRCRAFT OWNER STATED THAT BOTH ENGINES RESPONDED WITH FULL POWER. THE PILOT REACHED FOR THE FLAP SELECTOR SWITCH AND THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN ROLLING TO THE LEFT. BEFORE THE PILOT COULD CORRECT THE LEFT ROLL, THE LEFT WING TIP COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND AND THE AIRCRAFT CARTWHEELED TO A STOP. THE PILOT SAID THAT THE WINDSOCK INDICATED THE WIND APPEARED TO BE DIRECTLY DOWN THE RUNWAY. A PILOT WITNESS ON THE GROUND SAID THE WINDS AT THE TIME WERE FROM 250 DEGREES AT 15 KNOTS, WITH HIGHER GUSTS OF UNKNOWN INTENSITY.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain control of the aircraft while reaching cross cockpit for the flap control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA345
- Event ID
- 20001206X02277
- Case number
- LAX94LA345
- 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: fecd7114befe51c379498080021fce3e87f9d0713dc8eda76bf9949e9a2d8c92; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:30:12.031Z.