LAX93FA177 · British Aerospace BA 3101
Westair Commuter Airlines British Aerospace BA 3101 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From Merced Regional Macready Field (MCE) to Merced Regional Macready Field (MCE)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93FA177
- 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
British Aerospace BA 3101
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace BA-3101
- 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
- N131CA
- Operator
- Westair Commuter Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Merced Regional Macready Field (MCE)To Merced Regional Macready Field (MCE)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Check pilot › Inattentive
- Check pilot › Supervision, inadequate
- Copilot/second pilot › Descent, not corrected
- Copilot/second pilot › Proper climb rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMPANY CHIEF PILOT/CHECK PILOT WAS GIVING A CHECK FLIGHT TO A COMPANY FIRST OFFICER (F/O). AN FAA INSPECTOR WAS ABOARD TO OBSERVE THE CHECK PILOT'S ABILITY TO GIVE PROFICIENCY CHECK FLIGHTS. SOON AFTER LIFT-OFF ON THE 2ND TAKEOFF, THE CHECK PILOT SIMULATED AN ENGINE FAILURE. THE F/O, WHO WAS WEARING A VISION LIMITING DEVICE, ALLOWED THE AIRPLANE TO DRIFT TO THE LEFT, BUT THE FAA INSPECTOR NOTED THAT THE F/O SUCCESSFULLY REGAINED DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. THE INSPECTOR THEN LOOKED AWAY FROM THE COCKPIT, & WHEN HE LOOKED BACK, THE AIRPLANE WAS DESCENDING. MOMENTS LATER, IT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. THE FAA INSPECTOR REPORTED THAT THE CHECK PILOT WAS LOOKING TO THE LEFT, OUTSIDE OF THE AIRCRAFT, & DID NOT HAVE HIS HAND NEAR THE POWER QUADRANT. REVIEW OF THE CVR TAPE REVEALED THAT, FROM THE TIME THE F/O WAS GIVEN THE SIMULATED LEFT ENGINE FAILURE UNTIL IMPACT, THE CHECK PILOT DID NOT SAY ANYTHING TO THE F/O. NO MAINTENANCE DISCREPANCY OR MATERIAL DEFICIENCY WAS NOTED DURING THE INVESTIGATION. THE F/O HAD 3925 HOURS IN THIS MAKE/MODEL OF AIRCRAFT.
Probable cause
THE FIRST OFFICER'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AN ADEQUATE RATE OF CLIMB AFTER A SINGLE-ENGINE LOSS OF POWER WAS SIMULATED, AND THE COMPANY CHECK PILOT'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION AND FAILURE TO NOTE THE DESCENT. DARKNESS WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93FA177
- Event ID
- 20001211X12155
- Case number
- LAX93FA177
- 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 1993-04-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2820061f2fb0d2873ceb9668789c6d84653ea427e45b824e0235ae9216bd7ee9; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:28:04.783Z.