LAX91LA300 · Cessna 320
Cessna 320 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA300
- 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
Cessna 320
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 320
- 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
- N3011T
- Operator
- David E. Baskett · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX), Santa Maria, 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Propeller system/accessories, counterweight › Failure, total
- Propeller system/accessories, counterweight › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT HE APPLIED FULL POWER AND THE AIRCRAFT WAS ACCELERATING THROUGH 30 KNOTS ON THE TAKEOFF GROUND ROLL WHEN HE HEARD A LOUD EXPLOSION. THE PILOT ABORTED THE TAKEOFF AND TAXIED BACK TO THE RAMP. INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED THAT A CLAMP WHICH RETAINS ONE OF THE FEATHERING COUNTER WEIGHTS ON THE LEFT PROPELLER HAD SEPARATED, AND THE COUNTER WEIGHT PENETRATED THROUGH THE NOSE STRUCTURE OF THE AIRCRAFT. THE FAILED CLAMP ASSEMBLY WAS SENT TO THE FACTORY UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE FAA CHICAGO AIRCRAFT CERTIFICATION OFFICE FOR DETAILED ANALYSIS. ACCORDING TO THE REPORT OF THE EXAMINATION, THE FRACTURE WAS FOUND TO BE OF A FATIGUE TYPE, WITH THE ORIGIN ON THE LOWER INSIDE CORNER OF THE STEEL STRAP. CHEMICAL AND HARDNESS TESTS OF THE ASSEMBLY REVEALED THAT THE PART MET SPECIFICATIONS. THE REASON FOR THE FRACTURE INITIATION WAS UNDETERMINED.
Probable cause
THE FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE PROPELLER FEATHERING COUNTER WEIGHT CLAMP ASSEMBLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA300
- Event ID
- 20001212X17591
- Case number
- LAX91LA300
- 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: 6ba967304d6eea86e0b2312f6b3efc465d95106ef7f789e62aa5dd90d353c74e; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:58:16.323Z.