LAX93LA027 · Beech 36TC
Beech 36TC · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA027
- 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 36TC
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N67434
- Operator
- Gray, John A. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- 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 › Planned approach, poor
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT ENCOUNTERED FORECASTED TURBULENCE WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH TO RUNWAY 03. A PASSENGER REPORTED THE PILOT FLEW A LOW FINAL APPROACH. THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED A DOWNDRAFT. THE PILOT EXECUTED A GO AROUND, BUT WITHOUT SUCCESS. REALIZING THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT CLIMBING AND WAS UNABLE TO MAKE THE RUNWAY THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND ON THE LOWER TERRAIN TO THE LEFT OF THE AIRPORT. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED ABOUT 150 FEET SHORT OF THE RUNWAY AND ABOUT 500 FEET TO THE WEST (LEFT) OF ITS EXTENDED CENTERLINE. AIRPORT PERSONNEL PROVIDED THE PILOT WITH AN AIRPORT ADVISORY WHICH INCLUDED THAT THE SURFACE WINDS WERE FROM THE NORTHWEST BETWEEN 25 AND 40 KNOTS. THE AIRPORT FACILITY DIRECTORY STATES IN THE SEDONA AIRPORT REMARKS SECTION, IN PART, '...TURBULENCE MAY BE EXPERIENCED IN VICINITY OF THE AIRPORT...'
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POORLY PLANNED APPROACH AND DELAY IN EXECUTING THE APPROPRIATE REMEDIAL ACTION. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN THE PROPER GLIDEPATH AND ENCOUNTERING A DOWNDRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA027
- Event ID
- 20001211X16057
- Case number
- LAX93LA027
- 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: 79f8014753d792a260959b46ca2b512cdee4a678b899c0444f183426d30fbccf; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:30:14.699Z.