LAX95LA073 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C · Accident: gear collapsed during landing
From Tuba City Airport (T03) to Q32
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA073
- 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 421C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N746CA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tuba City Airport (T03), Tuba City, AZTo Q32
- 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
- Gear collapsed
- 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
- Landing gear, nose gear attach point › Failure, total
- Landing gear, nose gear attach point › Overload
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMPANY DID NOT REPORT THE ACCIDENT TO EITHER THE FAA OR SAFETY BOARD. AN FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTOR FOUND THE DAMAGED AIRPLANE IN A HANGAR AT THE COMPANY BASE. THE PILOT AND A COMPANY MECHANIC ONBOARD THE AIRCRAFT DURING THE ACCIDENT SUBMITTED WRITTEN STATEMENTS. THE AIRCRAFT WAS ON A POSITIONING FLIGHT TO PICK UP A MEDICAL EVACUATION PATIENT AT A DIRT AIRSTRIP. BOTH THE PILOT AND MECHANIC SAID THE APPROACH AND TOUCHDOWN ON THE DIRT AIRSTRIP WERE NORMAL. THE MECHANIC SAID HE SAW THREE DOWN AND LOCKED GEAR LIGHTS BEFORE LANDING. AFTER TOUCHDOWN ON THE MAINS, THE NOSE OF THE AIRCRAFT SETTLED DOWN PAST THE NORMAL NOSE GEAR CONTACT POINT. THE MECHANIC SAID THE AIRCRAFT NOSE THEN WENT TO THE RIGHT AND THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO SLIDE SIDEWAYS. THE AIRCRAFT VEERED OFF THE RUNWAY TO THE RIGHT AND HIT A BARBED WIRE FENCE. NEITHER THE PILOT NOR THE MECHANIC REPORTED ANY UNUSUAL 'NOISES OR SENSATIONS' FROM THE NOSE GEAR DURING THE LANDING. BOTH THE PILOT AND MECHANIC STATED THAT THE LANDING GEAR TRACKS WERE STRAIGHT ON THE RUNWAY UNTIL THE NOSE GEAR 'DUG IN AND VEERED TO THE RIGHT.' THE FAA INSPECTOR SAID THE NOSE GEAR FAILED TO THE LEFT WITH EVIDENCE OF A SIDE LOAD. THE UPPER RIGHT TRUNION FRACTURED FROM THE NOSE GEAR CASTING, AND THE FRACTURE FACE APPEARED TO BE INSTANTANEOUS OVERLOAD, WITH NO EVIDENCE OF PRE-EXISTING CRACKS OR FLAWS.
Probable cause
the overload failure of the nose gear trunion for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA073
- Event ID
- 20001206X02761
- Case number
- LAX95LA073
- 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: 7a2654de108801979ae4613af45533d8538c381735a5501aa9677cc3936c39e8; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:23:41.199Z.