LAX96LA230 · Ayres S2R
Ayres S2R · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Falcon Field (FFZ) to San Manuel Airport (E77)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA230
- 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
Ayres S2R
- Aircraft type
- Ayres S2
- 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
- N4006K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa, AZTo San Manuel Airport (E77), San Manuel, AZ
- 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall/mush
- 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, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Evasive maneuver, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot configured the aircraft to drop fire retardant over a fire with a planned downhill turn to the left after the release, so as to avoid rising bowl type terrain to the right. He did not release the retardant, when over the fire as expected; instead, he raised the flaps, added power, and turned to the right. During the right turn, he was close to a stall and reportedly encountered a downdraft. He rolled wings level to control a collision with the ground. He did not use the emergency release handle to drop the load. The aircraft was operating near its maximum gross weight, and the density altitude was about 7,700 feet. Examination of the drop system, including the emergency release mechanism, did not indicate a malfunction or failure. A witness flying overhead observed that the aircraft entered the right turn into the bowl area with an estimated airspeed of about 60 knots.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper decision to turn toward rising terrain, without releasing or jettisoning the load of fire retardant, while maneuvering at slow airspeed, which resulted in a stall/mush and collision with the terrain. Factors relating to the accident were: the proximity of rising terrain, and high density altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA230
- Event ID
- 20001208X06031
- Case number
- LAX96LA230
- 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: 82c6893d846cff5b37a210c3ebce9a7044b238bda3c74c89471aac1b0452fa8e; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:45:28.493Z.