LAX93LA266 · Glenn BD-4
Glenn BD-4 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From Yuma, AZ to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA266
- 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
Glenn BD-4
- Aircraft type
- Glenn BD-4
- 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
- N2849
- Operator
- Black, Roy W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yuma, AZTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Altitude, misjudged
- Copilot/second pilot › Distance, misjudged
- Copilot/second pilot › Lack of recent experience
- Copilot/second pilot › Lack of total experience in type of aircraft
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type of aircraft
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE SECOND PILOT HAD JUST REBUILT THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRPLANE. HAVING NEVER FLOWN THIS TYPE OF AIRPLANE, AND HAVING NOT FLOWN IN THE LAST 90 DAYS, HE ASKED ANOTHER PILOT, WHO ALSO DID NOT HAVE ANY TIME IN TYPE, TO FLY WITH HIM ON THE INITIAL TEST FLIGHT AS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND. AFTER PERFORMING SOME AIRWORK, THE SECOND PILOT THEN FLEW THE AIRPLANE TO A NEARBY AIRPORT FOR A LANDING. THE AIRPLANE LANDED SHORT OF THE RUNWAY COLLIDING WITH AN 18-INCH HIGH GRAVEL MOUND SEPARATING THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR.
Probable cause
THE SECOND PILOT'S MISJUDGEMENT OF ALTITUDE AND DISTANCE FROM THE RUNWAY WHICH RESULTED IN AN UNDERSHOOT, AND THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION IN NOT TAKING TIMELY CORRECTIVE ACTION. IN ADDITION, NEITHER PILOT HAD ANY EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRPLANE, AND THE SECOND PILOT HAD NOT FLOWN DURING THE PREVIOUS 90 DAYS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA266
- Event ID
- 20001211X12662
- Case number
- LAX93LA266
- 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: ea194c5a60f2514825c6e9c98d3c3f096a60fcb65a201e5e1cf3d622ba100d9a; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:55:59.718Z.