LAX96LA113 · Wsk Pzl Mielec M-18-A
Wsk Pzl Mielec M-18-A · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From FARM STRIP, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA113
- 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
Wsk Pzl Mielec M-18-A
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec M-18
- 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
- N92640
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FARM STRIP, CATo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed indicator, not used
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not attained
- Pilot in command › Lift-off, premature
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot attempted a takeoff with a full load of chemical and water from a 2,500-foot dirt strip. The aircraft did not get airborne, veered off to the right side of the runway, collided with a canal, and then bounced over the canal and collided with the ground where the gear separated from the aircraft. The pilot indicated that the engine tachometer and manifold pressure were in the normal ranges and that the airplane just wouldn't lift off. He stated that he didn't look at the airspeed indicator during the takeoff. There were no mechanical problems reported.
Probable cause
the pilot's premature lift-off and subsequent loss of control due to his failure to monitor the airspeed indicator during the takeoff roll.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA113
- Event ID
- 20001208X05284
- Case number
- LAX96LA113
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1996-02-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2c22d502a738eda469ee2ca6e9a3112165768eb8bd817770a9e2c5fce2945b56; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:49:26.794Z.