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LAX92LA253 · Piper PA-60-700P

18 Jun 1992 · Coalinga, CA, United States

Trustee, Nils P. Piper PA-60-700P · Accident: undershoot during landing

From Buchanan Field (CCR) to 308

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Event

NTSB case
LAX92LA253
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

Piper PA-60-700P

Aircraft type
Piper PA-60
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
N626NP
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, CATo 308
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
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

  • Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
  • Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT ALIGNED THE AIRCRAFT WITH RUNWAY 32 FOR LANDING. HE SAID THAT THERE WAS A 15 KNOT WIND BLOWING FROM 270 DEGREES AND THAT HE ENTERED A LEFT CRAB AS THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED FOR THE RUNWAY. AS THE AIRCRAFT APPROACHED THE RUNWAY THE PILOT SAID HE ENTERED A SLIP. THE AIRCRAFT LANDED SHORT AND THE LEFT LANDING GEAR COLLIDED WITH THE APPROACH EDGE OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT SAID THAT HE HEARD A MUFFLED BANG AND A POP NOISE FOLLOWED BY A LOUD FLOPPING NOISE FROM THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR AS THE AIRCRAFT SKIDDED DOWN THE RUNWAY. AT APPROXIMATELY MIDFIELD THE AIRCRAFT SKIDDED OFF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY AND IMPACTED A WIND DIRECTION INDICATOR. THE INDICATOR WAS LOCATED ABOUT 100 FEET LEFT OF RUNWAY 32. THE NOSE GEAR AND RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED DURING THE AIRCRAFT'S GROUND SLIDE.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN THE PROPER TOUCHDOWN POINT AND MISJUDGING THE AIRCRAFT'S DISTANCE FROM THE RUNWAY. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE CROSSWIND CONDITION AND THE NOSE AND MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSING DUE TO OVERLOAD.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX92LA253
Event ID
20001211X14908
Case number
LAX92LA253
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 1992-06-19.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 74dbc8c9c2bd3080518d4c8ae1f64fe5063e3a45d7ab1186e6776059f5406924; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:02:06.447Z.