LAX92LA263 · Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) to Big Bear City Airport (L35)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA263
- 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
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Smith Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601
- 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
- N601DE
- Operator
- Robert C. Reid · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC)To Big Bear City Airport (L35), Big Bear City, CA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Climb, not possible
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BFR FLT, THE OWNER/PLT RCVD A SPECIAL AIRWORTHINESS CERTIFICATE, ALLOWING HIM TO MAKE A FERRY FLT FM COLORADO TO CALIFORNIA FOR MAINT. A COND FOR THE FAA'S ISSUANCE OF THE PERMIT WAS THAT AN A & P MECHANIC MUST CERTIFY THE ACFT WAS 'SAFE FOR THE FLIGHT.' THE PLT WAS AN A & P MECHANIC & PROVIDED THE REQUISITE CERTIFICATION. AN ACDNT OCCURRED DRG TAKEOFF FM AN EN ROUTE STOP. A WITNESS TO THE TAKEOFF RPRTD THE ACFT USED 5500 FT OF RWY BEFORE BECOMING AIRBORNE. THE ACFT FAILED TO CLIMB HIGHER THAN 200 FT AGL BEFORE COLLIDING WITH ROUGH TRRN ABOUT 2 MI FM THE ARPT. AT THE TIME OF THE MISHAP, THE COMPUTED DENSITY ALT WAS APRX 7760 FT. PERSONNEL, WHO RESPONDED TO THE CRASH SITE, OBSERVED THAT DUCT TAPE HAD BEEN USED TO SECURE AN ANGLE IRON ONTO A LANDING GEAR LEG (FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING A STIFF LEG COND). DUCT TAPE HAD ALSO BEEN USED ON THE DETERIORATED WING TIPS (TO KEEP THEM STREAMLINED). TWO HORNET NESTS WERE FND IN AIRFRAME AIR INLETS. THE PLT RPRTD THAT NO MECH FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OCCURRED DRG TAKEOFF.
Probable cause
THE AIRPLANE'S FAILURE TO ACHIEVE AN ADEQUATE RATE OF CLIMB BECAUSE OF DEGRADED AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE AND THE PILOT'S INTENTIONAL OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCIES. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA263
- Event ID
- 20001211X14916
- Case number
- LAX92LA263
- 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: b422611a8217de7a520f890b262d0c8106b99f91647e48b64064828572192ff5; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:00:49.261Z.