LAX93LA105 · Beech 58P
Beech 58P · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA105
- 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 58P
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N4458S
- Operator
- William K. Gamble · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX), Santa Maria, 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vref), excessive
- Pilot in command › Brakes(normal), improper use of
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT WAS WITNESSED BY BOTH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS IN THE TOWER CAB AND VARIOUS PILOTS AND MECHANICS AT THE AIRPORT. ACCORDING TO THEIR OBSERVATIONS, THE AIRCRAFT'S FINAL APPROACH WAS 'HOT, HIGH AND LONG.' THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT TWO THIRDS OF THE WAY DOWN THE RUNWAY AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER BEGAN TO SKID. THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO SKID SIDEWAYS AND A MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. THE PILOT SAID THAT HE ENCOUNTERED A TAIL WIND ON FINAL WHICH CAUSED HIS AIRSPEED TO BE EXCESSIVE AND THE AIRCRAFT TO FLOAT. HE FURTHER REPORTED THAT JUST AFTER TOUCHDOWN WHEN THE AIRCRAFT WAS SKIDDING HE REACHED FOR THE FLAP CONTROL LEVER. THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS IN THE TOWER CAB REPORTED THAT THE WINDS WERE CALM AT THE TIME OF THE AIRCRAFT'S APPROACH AND LANDING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POORLY PLANNED APPROACH, HIS USE OF AN EXCESSIVE AIRSPEED ON FINAL APPROACH AND HIS IMPROPER USE OF THE BRAKES. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS HIS LIMITED EXPERIENCE IN BOTH MULTI ENGINE AND IN THE ACCIDENT AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA105
- Event ID
- 20001211X11723
- Case number
- LAX93LA105
- 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: 9e585fbde389a70c1153fc59332b01da48b86307275fec1fec92c4db74cd11be; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:22:42.469Z.