LAX89LA226 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From L66 · Corona, CA to 91L
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA226
- 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 T210L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N1982K
- Operator
- Gundersen, Gary K. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L66 · Corona, CATo 91L
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Wind information, not obtained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID THAT HE ENTERED A NORMAL LEFT HAND PATTERN FOR A LANDING AT THE DIRT AIRSTRIP, BUT WAS 'CUT OFF BY A ARMY HELICOPTER' THAT APPEARED SUDDENLY FROM BELOW. HE MANEUVERED TO AVOID A COLLISION & SUBSEQUENTLY ENTERED A WIDE RIGHT BASE TO THE AIRSTRIP. HE STATED THAT HE DID NOT HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHECK THE WIND SOCK WHILE IN THE PATTERN. REPORTEDLY, AFTER TOUCH DOWN, A STRONG GUST OF WIND PUSHED THE AIRCRAFT OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY & IT COLLIDED WITH SEVERAL LARGE ROCKS. ALSO, THE PILOT STATED THAT AFTER THE LANDING, 'THE WIND SOCK STOOD STRAIGHT OUT WITH A 90 DEGREE CROSS WIND' AT A SPEED HE ESTIMATED TO BE 18 KTS WITH GUSTS TO 25 KTS.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT AND HIS FAILURE TO OBTAIN WIND INFORMATION BEFORE LANDING. FACTORS RELATING TO THIS ACCIDENT WERE: THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA226
- Event ID
- 20001213X28607
- Case number
- LAX89LA226
- 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: 497b4e9e15d769f7359b4b05e8430c30ccb26216d95a39bf11626d985a5b6672; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:10:06.146Z.