LAX99LA219 · Beech A-36
Beech A-36 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA219
- 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 A-36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft A-36
- 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
- N126GL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY)To 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Electrical system › Failure, total
- Electrical system, alternator › Not activated
- Electrical system, battery › Discharged
- Pilot in command › Alternator, not verified
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, not verified
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had gone to another airport to practice takeoffs and landings and test the mode C transponder. After departure from the airport, he noted the navigational equipment was not functioning properly. On approach to the accident airport he noted that he was not receiving radio calls from the tower. He lowered the landing gear, obtained a three green light indication from the landing gear, and then lost electrical power. He believed that the landing gear was in the down and locked position due to the three green light indication prior to loss of electrical power, but did not verify it with the emergency gear down extension procedure published in the Pilot's Operating Handbook. Upon entering the airport environment, he received a green light indication from the tower for landing. On the landing rollout the gear collapsed. Tower personnel reported that the airplane entered the traffic pattern with no radio communication. When they did not receive a response from the pilot, they cleared him to land via a green light signal. Tower personnel did note that they saw the landing gear down, but could not tell if it was in the locked position. The battery and alternator were inspected. The battery was found to have a 6-volt charge. The alternator circuit breaker had not been tripped inside the cockpit, and when it was tested no discrepancies were noted. The pilot stated that after engine start from the battery, the alternator switch has to be manually turned on. He did not recall turning the alternator to the on position after engine startup.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to verify that the alternator was activated after engine start, subsequently resulting in a total electrical failure; and his inadequate emergency procedures for manual extension of the landing gear following the electrical failure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA219
- Event ID
- 20001212X19031
- Case number
- LAX99LA219
- 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: d656c2a166179144ec8054ed3f428b14fabd38aeee1ae2625a92187f9a008209; retrieved 2026-09-22T14:58:37.338Z.