LAX95LA017 · Enstrom F-28C
Enstrom F-28C · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Brackett Field (POC) to Brackett Field (POC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA017
- 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
Enstrom F-28C
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom F-28
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N5697D
- Operator
- Robert F. Beck · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brackett Field (POC), CATo Brackett Field (POC), CA
- 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 pattern final
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Proper descent rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CFI WAS GIVING DUAL INSTRUCTION IN PINNACLE APPROACHES TO A PRACTICE AREA PLATEAU AT 2,500 FEET MSL. A GO-AROUND WAS MADE ON THE FIRST APPROACH. ACCORDING TO THE CFI, ABOUT HALFWAY THROUGH THE SECOND APPROACH THE SIGHT PICTURE HAD STEEPENED AND HE STARTED ASSISTING ON THE CONTROLS TO REGAIN THE PROPER ANGLE. HE STATED THAT WITHIN SECONDS IT BECAME OBVIOUS THAT THE WIND HAD REVERSED AND WAS NOW BEHIND THE HELICOPTER WHICH WAS SETTLING WITH POWER. THE CFI ATTEMPTED A RECOVERY; HOWEVER, THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH ALTITUDE AND THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD. THE CFI STATED THAT THE WINDS AT THE ACCIDENT SITE WERE VARIABLE IN DIRECTION AT 10 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO 20 KNOTS. THERE WAS NO WIND DIRECTION INDICATOR AT THE ACCIDENT SITE.
Probable cause
an inadvertant entry into a settling with power condition and the flight instructor's inability to correct the situation due to an inadequate altitude above ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA017
- Event ID
- 20001206X02474
- Case number
- LAX95LA017
- 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: 4063a75366df66728d92f44fc949151f34b5ab304c0e05ddb50d7261e54c0d02; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:33:51.915Z.