LAX93FA149 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Bermuda Dunes Airport (UDD) to Avi Suquilla Airport (P20)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93FA149
- 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
- 3 · 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 421C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N2656N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bermuda Dunes Airport (UDD), Bermuda Dunes, CATo Avi Suquilla Airport (P20), Parker, AZ
- 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Flight control, elevator › Undetermined
- Stabilizer › Failure, total
- Stabilizer › Flutter
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 421 CRASHED AFTER AN INFLIGHT BREAKUP. INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED THAT THE LEFT OUTBOARD PORTION OF THE ELEVATOR ASSEMBLY (INCLUDING THE BALANCE WEIGHT) SEPARATED FIRST, RESULTING IN EMPENNAGE FLUTTER & SUBSEQUENT IN-FLIGHT BREAKUP OF THE EMPENNAGE. THE LEFT ELEVATOR OUTBOARD HINGE & SUPPORT STRUCTURE EXHIBITED EVIDENCE OF HINGE OVERTRAVEL. THE LEFT HORIZONTAL STABILIZER FRONT SPAR HAD FAILED DOWNWARD; RIVETS THAT ATTACHED THE LEFT OUTBOARD HINGE TO THE REAR SPAR OF THE LEFT STABILIZER HAD SHEARED; AND THE LEFT ELEVATOR CENTER HINGE HAD BEEN PULLED OFF THE REAR SPAR. ABOUT 100 FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, MAINTENANCE WAS PERFORMED TO REPAIR THE LEFT ELEVATOR BALANCE WEIGHT (WHICH WAS LOOSE) & TO REPAIR A DAMAGED STIFFENER IN THE CENTER STRUCTURE OF THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER. HOWEVER, WHEN EXAMINED AFTER THE ACCIDENT, THE BALANCE WEIGHT WAS TIGHT & THE REPAIR TO THE STIFFENER WAS INTACT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE LEFT ELEVATOR FOR UNDETERMINED REASON(S), WHICH RESULTED IN FLUTTER AND FAILURE OF THE EMPENNAGE, AND SUBSEQUENT UNCONTROLLED COLLISION WITH THE TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93FA149
- Event ID
- 20001211X11996
- Case number
- LAX93FA149
- 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 1993-03-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9149b879c836a27288051b39faddbde42852adee78df266ae8945f6d3344bc62; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:39:56.125Z.