LAX92LA391 · Beech D17S
Beech D17S · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA391
- 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
Beech D17S
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 17
- 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
- N9465H
- Operator
- Richard D. Russell · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, CATo 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS HIRED TO FERRY THE AIRCRAFT TO AN AIRCRAFT AUCTION IN RENO. ONE FLIGHT ATTEMPT WAS ABORTED DUE TO A BAD LEFT BRAKE AND ATTEMPTS TO REPAIR THE BRAKE WERE UNSUCCESFUL. THE NEXT DAY, PARTS HAD BEEN LOCATED AND THE BRAKE HAD AGAIN BEEN REPAIRED. THE BRAKES TESTED SATISFACTORILY BY THE PILOT AND THE TRIP WAS MADE. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE LANDING WAS VERY SMOOTH AN ALMOST THREE POINT ATTITUDE ON THE CENTERLINE. HE SAID THE TAILWHEEL TOUCHED DOWN IMMEDIATLY AFTER THE MAIN GEAR AND THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO VEER SHARPLY TO THE RIGHT. THE PILOT NOTED THAT FULL LEFT RUDDER AND BRAKE WERE APPLIED, BUT THE RUDDER WAS INEFFECTIVE AT IDLE POWER AND SLOW SPEED, AND, WITHOUT A LEFT BRAKE IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO EFFECT ANY CHANGE OF DIRECTION. THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER IN SOFT SOIL AFTER LEAVING THE RUNWAY. WINDS AT THE TIME WAS REPORTED 130 DEGREES AT 6 KNOTS. IN FAA TOWER PERSONNEL STATEMENTS, THREE CONTROLLERS SAID THE AIRCRAFT BOUNCED ON LANDING AND ONE CONTROLLER SAID THE AIRCRAFT SWERVED BACK AND FORTH ALL PRIOR TO THE AIRCRAFT EXITING THE RUNWAY TO THE RIGHT. THE PASSENGER WAS INTERVIEWED AND HE STATED THE LANDING APPEARED NORMAL TO HIM. AFTER THE AIRCRAFT WAS REMOVED FROM THE RUNWAY SAFETY AREA A VISUAL AND STATIC TEST OF THE BRAKE PEDALS WAS PERFORMED SATISFACTORILY.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING LANDING ROLLOUT. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS A VARIABLE TAILWIND CONDITION AND THE SOFT, ROUGH NATURE OF THE TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA391
- Event ID
- 20001211X15725
- Case number
- LAX92LA391
- 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: 1bc4185a60630255a74c2cab1013dfc6371aaa9097bce065edba70f7561b5f86; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:37:35.276Z.