LAX92LA012 · Beech K35
Beech K35 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA012
- 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 K35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N9559R
- Operator
- Mike Collishaw
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV), 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 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Weather condition › Microburst/dry
- Weather condition › Turbulence
- Weather condition › Windshear
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
IN AN ORAL STATEMENT, THE PILOT SAID THAT AS HE APPROACHED THE AIRPORT HE OBSERVED SQUALL LINE ACTIVITY AND DECIDED TO ORBIT UNTIL THE WEATHER CLEARED. AFTER THE WEATHER CONDITIONS VISUALLY IMPROVED, THE PILOT ENTERED THE PATTERN FOR LANDING. HE STATED THAT ON SHORT FINAL APPROACH THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED SEVERE TURBULENCE AND A DOWN DRAFT. THE PILOT INITIATED A GO AROUND, HOWEVER, THE AIRCRAFT ROLLED VIOLENTLY AND THE WING TIP STRUCK THE GROUND. AN AIRPORT ATTENDANT STATED THAT HE WAS IN THE OFFICE WHERE THE WEATHER OBSERVATION INSTRUMENTS ARE LOCATED AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. HE SAID THAT THE WINDS WERE 30 TO 40 KNOTS WITH SUDDEN 180 DEGREE CHANGES IN DIRECTION AT THE TIME THE PILOT ATTEMPTED HIS APPROACH. THUNDERSTORM CLOUDS WERE VISIBLE IN THE DISTANCE AND THE AIRPORT WAS EXPERIENCING INTERMITTENT HEAVY RAIN SHOWERS.
Probable cause
THE INADVERTENT ENCOUNTER WITH A MICROBURST/DOWNBURST PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ADEQUATELY ASSESS THE WEATHER CONDITIONS DURING THE LANDING ATTEMPT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA012
- Event ID
- 20001212X18322
- Case number
- LAX92LA012
- 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: 1b4dc8d6aa1e21ada4b941e2c7b44b10b74b1f04fa11b3e7929cdb4ec3b386f5; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:37:08.695Z.