Clay Lacy Learjet 55B accident
Learjet 55B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From San Diego International Airport (SAN) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99FA051
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Learjet 55B
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 55
- 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
- N554CL
- Operator
- Clay Lacy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Diego International Airport (SAN), San Diego, CATo Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Electrical system, generator › Not activated
- Flightcrew › Checklist, not performed
- Landing gear, emergency extension assembly › Not activated
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not complied with
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The twin turbojet airplane landed gear-up after experiencing a gradual loss of electrical power and the eventual total drain of both batteries. The flight crew taxied out to the runway at the departure airport with only the right engine running. When the flight crew received their takeoff clearance, they started the left engine and taxied onto the runway. After takeoff, they started to experience a loss in radio communications, transponder transmissions, autopilot control, and annunciator and panel lights. The flight crew attempted a landing after selecting normal landing gear extension. When they realized that the landing gear were not extended, the flight crew performed a go-around and the captain attempted to extend the landing gear using the emergency blow down system. The captain failed to hold the emergency blow down handle until it latched preventing the landing gear system from extending properly. The flight crew then landed the airplane with the landing gear retracted without utilizing the emergency free fall system. Review of the cockpit voice recorder revealed that there was no indication that the flight crew completed the engine start checklist, which would have put the engine driven generators on-line. There was also no indication that the flight crew examined the electrical system or performed an electrical failure checklist. It was also apparent that the flight crew failed to properly perform the alternate landing gear extension methods. The electrical system was examined after the accident. There were no anomalies noted that would have prevent normal operation of the primary electrical system, or, either the normal or emergency landing gear extension systems.
Probable cause
the total loss of electrical power due to the flight crew's failure to complete the engine start checklist, or the electrical power failure checklist, which kept the generators off line and resulted in the complete discharged of both batteries. Also causal to the accident was the captain's failure to perform the emergency landing gear extension checklists, which resulted in a wheels-up landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99FA051
- Event ID
- 20001211X11573
- Case number
- LAX99FA051
- 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, coordinates. 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: 268361355c4ecfef02fcc3ede695a79684a62f9b95360bf455bcd5c14c4c3a23; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:01:32.314Z.