LAX95LA307 · Cessna 182Q
Cessna 182Q · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Napa County Airport (APC) to Q61
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA307
- 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 182Q
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N759YV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Napa County Airport (APC), Napa, CATo Q61
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID HE OVERFLEW THE AIRPORT 1,000 FEET ABOVE PATTERN ALTITUDE AND OBSERVED THE WIND SOCK POINTED DOWN RUNWAY 16. THE LOCAL FBO TOLD THE PILOT ON THE CTAF THAT RUNWAY 16 WAS FAVORED; HOWEVER, THE WINDS ON THE GROUND WERE VARIABLE AND GUSTY. THE PILOT ENTERED THE PATTERN FOR RUNWAY 16. HE SAID THERE WERE NO UNUSUAL CONDITIONS WHILE ON DOWNWIND OR BASE. ON FINAL APPROACH HE NOTICED THE WIND SOCKS AT THE DEPARTURE AND APPROACH ENDS WERE INDICATING DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS AND HE WAS CORRECTING FOR A LEFT CROSSWIND CONDITION. SHORTLY AFTER FULL FLAPS WERE SELECTED THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A SUDDEN AND DRAMATIC ALTITUDE LOSS. HE SAID HE ADDED POWER TO COMPENSATE FOR THE ALTITUDE LOSS AND WAS ABLE TO ARREST THE DESCENT. AS HE FLARED FOR LANDING THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED A GUST OF WIND FROM THE RIGHT; THE LEFT LANDING GEAR TOUCHED DOWN AND THE AIRCRAFT MADE AN ABRUPT TURN TO THE LEFT. THE AIRCRAFT THEN RAN OFF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY AND INTO SCRUB TREES. RUNWAY 16 IS BORDERED ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE BY A SMALL HILLOCK NEAR THE APPROACH END AND SITS ON TOP OF A RIDGE IN A MOUNTAIN VALLEY.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate compensation for the gusting crosswind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA307
- Event ID
- 20001207X04301
- Case number
- LAX95LA307
- 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: d8f60b84b3c3c0d95e9cce1224b74da4698d5d08fceac729e565ff31d9b1c108; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:21:28.741Z.