LAX93FA014 · Cessna T337G
Cessna T337G · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Monterey Regional Airport (MRY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93FA014
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna T337G
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 337
- 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
- N9SQ
- Operator
- Albert R. Swafford · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Monterey Regional Airport (MRY), Monterey, 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
- Approach · circling (IFR)
- 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 object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Descent, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fullerton, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND HIS SON DEPARTED ON AN IFR FLIGHT PLAN 38 DAYS AFTER OBTAINING HIS INSTRUMENT RATING, IN A RECENTLY PURCHASED AIRPLANE. THE PILOT COMPLETED A LOCALIZER APPROACH TO RUNWAY 24. GROUND WITNESSES STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS HIGH ON FINAL, WITH THE MAJORITY OF THE WITNESSES REPORTING THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS 500 FEET AT THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT REQUESTED A CIRCLE TO LAND, WHICH WAS APPROVED BY THE TOWER. WITNESSES STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE OVERFLEW THE 3121 FOOT RUNWAY AT ABOUT 100 TO 200 FEET AGL, AND, AT THE DEPARTURE END, APPLIED FULL POWER. THE WITNESSES REPORTED THAT AT ABOUT 500 FEET PAST THE RUNWAY END, THE PILOT STARTED A LEFT TURN WITH A BANK ANGLE ESTIMATED AT ABOUT 30 TO 45 DEGREES, THEN LEVELED OUT. THE AIRCRAFT THEN ENTERED A STEEP LEFT TURN OF ABOUT 80 DEGREES OF BANK WHILE DESCENDING. DURING THE FINAL TURN, THE WITNESSES SAW THE LANDING GEAR RETRACTING. POST CRASH EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE WING FLAPS WERE IN TRANSIT AT THE TIME OF IMPACT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT DURING A CIRCLE TO LAND MANEUVER IN REDUCED VISIBILITY CONDITIONS. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS HIS DISTRACTION WHILE RECONFIGURING THE AIRCRAFT FOR A GO AROUND WHICH LED TO AN INADVERTENT ENTRY INTO A STEEP DESCENDING TURN AT LOW ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93FA014
- Event ID
- 20001211X15889
- Case number
- LAX93FA014
- 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: 8dc93da1e76851b85f944af149fb27ec2bce9c62f00eb765860b321748eeb2e0; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:40:31.626Z.