LAX96LA319 · Diamond Aircraft Industries KATANA DA20-A1 KATANA DA2
Diamond Aircraft Industries KATANA DA20-A1 KATANA DA2 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL) to Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA319
- 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
Diamond Aircraft Industries KATANA DA20-A1 KATANA DA2 Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Diamond KATANA DA20-A1
- 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
- N474B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL)To Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS), Santa Rosa, 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
- Taxi
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Brakes(normal), improper use of
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of South Lake Tahoe, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot said that as he attempted a right turn from parking, his right hydraulic brake did not produce the braking action he was expecting. As a result, his aircraft turned wide and struck the spinner of a Cessna with its left wing tip. As his aircraft continued in the turn, it struck the propeller of a Piper with its left wing. After the second impact, his aircraft yawed left until it struck the left wing of the Piper with its spinner. After the accident, the Katana's brake system was inspected and was found to operate properly. The Katana requires the use of differential braking to steer the aircraft during ground taxi operations.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate use of the brakes, which resulted in loss of directional control while taxiing in a non-movement area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA319
- Event ID
- 20001208X06563
- Case number
- LAX96LA319
- 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: 521b6656876e7ca8162cb7617f256b8ec7ab920c51797029ca4db438911a5742; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:22:34.582Z.