LAX91FA366 · Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
San Val Flying Service Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30 · Accident before flight
From an unrecorded airport to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA366
- 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
Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N9507C
- Operator
- San-Val Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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
- Prior to flight
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 › Performance data, not followed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE RECENTLY CERTIFICATED COMMERCIAL PILOT LOADED THE AIRPLANE TO APPROXIMATELY ITS MAXIMUM CERTIFICATED GROSS WEIGHT. HE THEN ATTEMPTED TO TAKEOFF USING ONE NOTCH OF WING FLAPS ON THE 4,000 FOOT LONG RUNWAY. AN 8,000 FOOT LONG RUNWAY WAS AVAILABLE. IT WAS A HOT (98 DEG. F.) DAY AND DURING THE GROUND ROLL THE PILOT OVERROTATED, SCRAPED THE TAIL SKID, AND ELECTED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF. INSUFFICIENT DISTANCE REMAINED TO STOP. THE AIRPLANE OVERRAN THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY, COLLIDED WITH A FENCE AND A DIRT BANK, AND THEN CAUGHT ON FIRE. PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT, THE PILOT'S TOTAL 'IN COMMAND' EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRPLANE WAS 1.0 HOUR. PERFORMANCE DATA INDICATED THAT USING PROPER CONTROL INPUTS AND USING TWO NOTCHES OF WING FLAPS, THE AIRPLANE MIGHT HAVE SUCCESSFULLY BEEN ABLE TO TAKEOFF USING THE SHORTER RUNWAY.
Probable cause
(1) THE PILOT'S IMPROPER PREFLIGHT PREPARATION; (2) THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE AIRPLANE MANUFACTURER'S PERFORMANCE DATA BY HIS SELECTION OF AN IMPROPER FLAP POSITION FOR TAKEOFF; AND (3) THE PILOT'S CHOICE OF A RUNWAY TOO SHORT FOR A SAFE TAKEOFF. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: (1) THE PILOT'S TOTAL LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRPLANE WHICH WAS MANIFESTED BY HIS IMPROPER POSITIONING OF THE WING FLAPS; AND (2) THE PILOT'S IMPROPER STABILATOR CONTROL USAGE DURING ROTATION FOR TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA366
- Event ID
- 20001212X17882
- Case number
- LAX91FA366
- 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 1991-08-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2aaf0dac8f7399cbeda1bd4030365f3f08315c34621de186758102490c93b04d; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:21:50.221Z.