LAX99LA243 · Cessna 177RG
Cessna 177RG · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From 201 to Buchanan Field (CCR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA243
- 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 177RG
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N2175Q
- Operator
- Charles D. Kemp · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 201To Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vref), not obtained/maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airport is in mountainous terrain at 3,415 feet msl; the density altitude was about 5,841 feet msl. High terrain and obstacles were immediately off the departure end of runway 24. The pilot questioned a resident pilot examiner about the proper takeoff procedure. Runway 06 was recommended for the departure due to rising terrain off runway 24; however, a tailwind of 7 to 10 mph existed for runway 06. The FAA Airport/Facility Directory also recommends runway 06 for departure due to terrain. The pilot said that using the POH he calculated a total required ground roll of 2,100 feet. The pilot stated that during the run-up he leaned for best power and set the flaps to 10 degrees. He taxied into position and applied full power with brakes on; the rpm was normal, and the engine sounded good. After passing the departure end of the runway, about 60 feet agl, the positive climb rate of just over 200 fpm turned into a negative climb rate. The pilot stated that he had flown into a downdraft situation and there was nothing he could do but keep the wings level and maintain airspeed as the airplane settled into the ground. At no time did the stall warning sound. The pilot examiner witnessed the accident and said the airplane used most of the 4,100-foot-long runway before rotating. About 100 feet agl, the witness saw the nose pitch up just before the airplane began descending. Subsequently, the airplane rolled left and slightly nose down, colliding with terrain.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to attain and maintain an adequate airspeed for the existing wind conditions, and, his failure to abort the takeoff when it became apparent that the aircraft performance was not as anticipated. Factors in the accident were the tailwind and high density altitude conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA243
- Event ID
- 20001212X19294
- Case number
- LAX99LA243
- 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: 0d3f881e52daca716cbee2fe137c6ded9d93e052788fcf5d9b93c5d3d6260dae; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:29:15.177Z.