LAX92LA133 · Helio HST-550A
Helio HST-550A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA133
- 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
Helio HST-550A
- Aircraft type
- Helio HST-550
- 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
- N550HZ
- Operator
- Maytag, David D. JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC), Prescott, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Altitude, improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT AND A PASSENGER WERE CONDUCTING A LOW LEVEL FLIGHT OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. THE SURFACE WIND CONDITIONS WERE REPORTED TO BE FROM THE SOUTH AT OR ABOVE 20 KNOTS. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE APPROACHED THE MOUNTAIN PEAK IN A SOUTHERLY DIRECTION AND CLIMBED THE AIRPLANE TO AN ALTITUDE OF 150 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND TO CLEAR THE MOUNTAIN. THE AIRPLANE ENCOUNTERED DOWNDRAFT CONDITIONS ON THE LEE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. THE PILOT FAILED TO IMMEDIATELY CORRECT FOR THIS CONDITION AND THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE UPSLOPING MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WHEN THE PILOT WAS EXECUTING A 180 DEGREE TURN.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE IN-FLIGHT PLANNING, IMPROPER ALTITUDE, AND DELAYING THE REQUIRED REMEDIAL ACTION TO PREVENT THE COLLISION WITH THE MOUNTAIN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE UNFAVORABLE WIND AND DOWNDRAFT CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA133
- Event ID
- 20001211X14313
- Case number
- LAX92LA133
- 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: 9ac7918245af9b50a26c499c49ca465d70195bac0c951f26a8ad916f2ae61c9b; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:20:18.242Z.