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LAX98LA196 · Beech 76

14 Jun 1998 · San Martin, CA, United States

Tradewinds Aviation Beech 76 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach

From Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX98LA196
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

Beech 76

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 76
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
N912KA
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV), San Jose, 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 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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
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(cfi) › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Engine shutdown, initiated
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

Prior to the simulated engine failure and subsequent accident, the instructor had simulated a right alternator failure, an engine fire, a left engine failure on takeoff, and a right engine failure on takeoff. During the accident simulated engine failure, initiated by shutting off the fuel supply, the student diverted to the airport for an emergency landing. He noted that the landing gear lights indicating the landing gear was in the down position were not illuminated. He informed the instructor, who advised him to initiate a go-around. As the student pilot advanced the throttles for the go-around the aircraft lurched to the right. The student pilot raised the flaps; however, aircraft performance continued to deteriorate. The student pilot stated that the aircraft speed was too slow to maintain directional control so he lowered the nose and the aircraft impacted terrain in a nose-low, right wing-low attitude. The aircraft and both engines were inspected on-scene with no mechanical malfunctions noted.

Probable cause

Failure of the instructor to adequately supervise the flight, which included ensuring that the student maintained the proper airspeed during the attempted go-around.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX98LA196
Event ID
20001211X10355
Case number
LAX98LA196
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: bc9edb189985232e18e9a5729d00bbd4d5e4951330c1bed50a0f8bb9cadfde9a; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:49:01.945Z.