LAX98LA081 · Cessna 340A
Cessna 340A · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Whiteman Airport (WHP) to Q68
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98LA081
- 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 340A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N41NR
- Operator
- Louis E. Fricke · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Whiteman Airport (WHP), WHITEMAN, CATo Q68
- 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 · landing roll
- 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
- Fluid, hydraulic › Leak
- Landing gear, normal brake system › Corroded
- Landing gear, normal brake system › Cracked
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that after touchdown the left brake failed. Examination of the aircraft revealed that flexible duct tubing was in close proximity to the aluminum brake line. The brake line showed evidence of corrosion, and the flexible duct tubing showed evidence of cracking. Further examination revealed that there would have been an insufficient amount of fluid in the left main landing gear brake system due to a leak, which would have restricted the operation of the left brake. The pilot reported that per the aircraft logbook, the brake lines had never been replaced. Documents from the manufacturer state that the pressurization system must be inspected every 200 hours or every year for plumbing condition, security, and loose connections. The brake system, per the manufacturer, must also be inspected every 200 hours or every year for leaks, hoses for bulges, and deterioration. The last annual maintenance performed included an inspection of the brake lines without removal of the structural sheet metal that overlies the pressurization system.
Probable cause
Failure of the brake line as a result of inadequate maintenance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98LA081
- Event ID
- 20001211X09471
- Case number
- LAX98LA081
- 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 1998-01-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9ec1ad7434ff6843efff40ee6dbff55abf602e243fb4a560e85c3a6f09e7e376; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:05:24.588Z.