FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

LAX94LA370 · James B. Edwards COZY

21 Sept 1994 · SKULL VALLEY, AZ, United States

James B. Edwards COZY · Accident: hard landing

From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) to an unrecorded destination

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
LAX94LA370
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

James B. Edwards COZY

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
N151JE
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC), Prescott, AZTo 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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
Hard landing
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 › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Planned approach, poor
  • Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not maintained

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

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT MADE A LOW AND SLOW STRAIGHT-IN APPROACH TO THE AIRPORT IN THE AMATEUR BUILT AIRPLANE. GROUND WITNESSES SAID THE AIRPLANE WAS IN A NOSE-HIGH ATTITUDE AND THE ENGINE WAS AT FULL POWER. THE INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A HARD LANDING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY ABOUT 54 YARDS FROM THE THRESHOLD. THE LEFT WING TIP AND LEFT MAIN GEAR SIMULTANEOUSLY CONTACTED THE GROUND; THE LEFT MAIN GEAR WAS AT THE RIGHT EDGE OF THE RUNWAY. THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED AND THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED ITS GROUND RUN, ON THE RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY, UNTIL IT STRUCK A MESQUITE BUSH AND NOSED OVER ONTO ITS BACK. THE INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PREEXISTING AIRPLANE OR ENGINE MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES. SAFETY BOARD INVESTIGATORS WERE UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE PILOT'S TOTAL FLIGHT HOURS OR HIS RECENCY OF EXPERIENCE. ACCORDING TO THE DESIGNER, THE PILOT REPORTED THE AIRPLANE ACCRUED 7.5 HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.

Probable cause

The pilot's poorly planned approach by failing to maintain the proper airspeed and alignment. The pilot's total expereince, and lack of experience in the airplane make and model were factors in this accident.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX94LA370
Event ID
20001206X02295
Case number
LAX94LA370
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: a74a25cbece396a87cb9f25e2efee090e718b25b1e255d31ab8e413abce51f8b; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:00:06.675Z.