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LAX91FA329 · Beech F33A

25 Jul 1991 · EARP, CA, United States

Beech F33A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From Avi Suquilla Airport (P20) to FULL · Fullerton, CA

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Event

NTSB case
LAX91FA329
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
4 · 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 F33A

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 33
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
N3813U
Operator
Ricky L. Fosnight · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Avi Suquilla Airport (P20), Parker, AZTo FULL · Fullerton, 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
Maneuvering
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 in flight
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
Stall
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 › Airspeed, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING THE CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT HOME, A FRIEND OF THE PILOT ASKED ONE OF THE PILOT'S THREE PASSENGERS TO TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH OF HIS RESIDENCE. THE PILOT AGREED TO FLY BY THE FRIEND'S RESIDENCE WHILE HIS PASSENGER PHOTOGRAPHED IT. WHILE FLYING, THE PILOT INITIALLY STAYED BETWEEN 150 AND 500 FEET ABOVE THE LEVEL OF THE TERRAIN. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS TRAVELING SLOWLY. SECONDS AFTER THE AIRPLANE PASSED BY THE SPECIFIED RESIDENCE, THE AIRPLANE ENTERED A STEEP LEFT TURN WITH A REPORTED ANGLE OF BANK BETWEEN 75 AND 90 DEGREES. THEREAFTER, THE AIRPLANE'S NOSE PITCHED DOWNWARD, THE AIRPLANE ENTERED AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT, AND IT CRASHED INTO THE MARSH-LIKE AREA ADJACENT TO THE NEARBY RESORT COMMUNITY.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHILE MANEUVERING DURING A LOW PASS, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: LACK OF ALTITUDE TO RECOVER FROM THE STALL.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX91FA329
Event ID
20001212X17575
Case number
LAX91FA329
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: d8d11b7d9d5d45aef286d4b98b8461d057a39a6cc61d9649a4047c2cda0225eb; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:40:33.079Z.