LAX91FA324 · Beech 95-C55
Beech 95-C55 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA324
- 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
- 3 · 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 95-C55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N77CQ
- Operator
- Bargman, Stuart · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), San Jose, 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 go-around
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Autopilot/flight director › Undetermined
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not possible
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not performed
- Pilot in command › Trim setting, not corrected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A VISUAL APPROACH TO THE AIRPORT, THE TOWER CONTROLLER NOTICED THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS HIGH, AND INSTRUCTED THE PILOT TO GO AROUND AND ENTER A RIGHT DOWNWIND. REPEATED INSTRUCTIONS TO TURN TO DOWNWIND BROUGHT NO RESPONSE UNTIL A TURN WAS FINALLY INITIATED. AT THAT TIME THE PILOT DECLARED AN EMERGENCY, REPORTING THAT HE WAS HOLDING FULL BACK ELEVATOR, TRYING TO KEEP THE AIRPLANE IN THE AIR, AND THAT IT LOOKED LIKE HIS ELEVATORS WERE STUCK. THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED AWAY FROM THE AIRPORT AND ENTERED A NEAR VERTICAL HIGH SPEED DESCENT INTO A STORAGE BUILDING. INVESTIGATION REVEALED BOTH ELEVATOR TRIM ACTUATORS AT A 4 DEG NOSE DOWN TRIM POSITION, AND EVIDENCE INDICATES A 40 DEG DOWN ELEVATOR POSITION. NO MALFUNCTION OF THE ENGINES OR FLIGHT CONTROLS WERE FOUND. THE AUTOPILOT SYSTEM CONTROL MODULE WAS DESTROYED. THE PILOT HAD RECEIVED 7 HOURS OF TRAINING IN THE AIRPLANE, AND HAD 20 HOURS TOTAL TIME IN THE AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL FOLLOWING AN UNDETERMINED AUTOPILOT FAILURE, DURING WHICH THE PILOT FAILED TO PERFORM THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO CORRECT A MIS-TRIM CONDITION. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS A PERCEIVED ELEVATOR CONTROL PROBLEM; THE INABILITY OF THE PILOT TO OVERPOWER THE MIS-TRIM CONDITION; AND A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING AND TRAINING IN AUTOPILOT SYSTEMS AND FAILURES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA324
- Event ID
- 20001212X17574
- Case number
- LAX91FA324
- 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 1991-07-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3a7fbfbf2fc755a0c5b0eb643a0b9c130d626918bdd7ca62469765903d6ae908; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:41:25.508Z.