LAX93LA179 · Cessna 320
Cessna 320 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From an unrecorded airport to E69 · Payson, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA179
- 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
Cessna 320
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 320
- 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
- N5711X
- Operator
- John T. Rooney · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo E69 · Payson, 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Landing gear, steering system › Disconnected
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE APPROACHING HIS ORIGINAL DESTINATION THE PILOT LOWERED THE LANDING GEAR AND IMMEDIATELY EXPERIENCED A JAMMED RUDDER CONTROL SYSTEM. THE PILOT SAID THAT RETRACTING THE LANDING GEAR RESOLVED THE CONTROL PROBLEM. THE PILOT ELECTED TO RETURN TO MESA WHERE CRASH FIRE RESCUE EQUIPMENT WAS AVAILABLE. WHILE ORBITING THE AIRPORT ANOTHER AIRCRAFT CONFIRMED THAT THE NOSE LANDING GEAR WAS COCKED ABOUT 90 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT. THE PILOT DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AND LANDED. AS THE NOSE WHEEL TOUCHED THE RUNWAY THE AIRCRAFT GROUND LOOPED TO THE RIGHT, COLLAPSING THE NOSE AND RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY AN FAA AIRFRAME AND POWER PLANT MECHANIC. ACCORDING TO HIS REPORT, THE RIGHT HAND STEERING SPRING WAS FOUND SEPARATED FROM THE STEERING YOKE. THE PIN, WASHER AND COTTER PIN WHICH ATTACH THE STEERING SPRING TO THE YOKE ASSEMBLY WAS NOT LOCATED. ACCORDING TO THE MAINTENANCE RECORDS, THE NOSE LANDING GEAR ASSEMBLY WAS REPLACED IN OCTOBER 1991, ABOUT 200 FLIGHT HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
the separation of the steering spring from the steering yoke assembly due to inadequate installation. A factor in the accident was inadequate maintenance on the aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA179
- Event ID
- 20001211X12173
- Case number
- LAX93LA179
- 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: 8497e753d6a83295cdc472698c67afca584fc42d4e17cf7c0ecd9a7019703759; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:11:04.018Z.