LAX95LA177 · Beech C23
Beech C23 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Half Moon Bay Airport (HAF) to Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA177
- 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
Beech C23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N6636R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Half Moon Bay Airport (HAF), Half Moon Bay, CATo Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL), 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Pilot in command › Distance/altitude, misjudged
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Disconnected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID THAT WHEN HE TRIED TO MAKE A THROTTLE ADJUSTMENT IT HAD NO EFFECT ON THE ENGINE RPM. AFTER ENTERING DOWNWIND ABEAM HIS TOUCHDOWN POINT, HE SHUT DOWN THE ENGINE AND ATTEMPTED TO GLIDE THE REMAINDER OF THE DISTANCE. THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN SHORT OF THE RUNWAY AND STRUCK AN EMBANKMENT. AN INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED THAT THE THROTTLE LINKAGE HAD SEPARATED FROM THE CARBURETOR THROTTLE ARM. THE BOLT, CASTELLATED NUT, AND WASHER WHICH SECURES THE ASSEMBLY TOGETHER WERE NOT PRESENT. THE ENGINE WAS REINSTALLED IN THE AIRCRAFT FOLLOWING A MAJOR OVERHAUL, 1 MONTH AND 2 OPERATING HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. AN ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS ALSO COMPLETED AND SIGNED OFF AT THAT TIME. THE MECHANIC WHO PERFORMED THE ENGINE REINSTALLATION SAID THAT THE BOLT HAD BEEN REINSTALLED AND THAT A COTTER PIN HAD ALSO BEEN INSTALLED IN THE PROCESS. THE MECHANIC WHO PERFORMED THE ANNUAL INSPECTION REPORTED THAT HE HAD NOT LOOKED THAT CLOSELY AT THE ENGINE SINCE IT HAD JUST BEEN INSTALLED AND INSPECTED BY ANOTHER MECHANIC. THE MANUFACTURER REPORTED THAT THE DESIGN OF THE ASSEMBLY DOES NOT PLACE LOADS ON THE BOLT THAT WOULD BE SUFFICIENT TO PRODUCE AN OVERLOAD FAILURE.
Probable cause
the separation of the throttle linkage due to improper installation, and the pilot's misjudgement of the glide path necessary to reach the runway prior to shutting down the engine.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA177
- Event ID
- 20001207X03482
- Case number
- LAX95LA177
- 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: 283b05cec70655f6f5bac1d8d87c3254fe07d29d44d1ff7126586602ef293ee3; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:19:43.204Z.