LAX90DUJ04 · Rand Engineering KR-II
Rand Engineering KR-II · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Hemet Ryan Airport (HMT) to CZG · Casa Grande, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90DUJ04
- 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
- 1 · 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
Rand Engineering KR-II
- Aircraft type
- Rand Engineering KR-II
- 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
- N120TM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hemet Ryan Airport (HMT), HEMET-RYAN, CATo CZG · Casa Grande, AZ
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Go-around, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Eloy, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THERE WERE TWO WITNESSES TO THE ACCIDENT, ONE WAS LOCATED ON THE AIRPORT AND THE SECOND WAS ANOTHER PILOT IN AN AIRCRAFT TRAVELING IN COMPANY WITH THE ACCIDENT AIRCRAFT. THE PILOT WITNESS ATTEMPTED TO LAND AT THE AIRPORT FIRST, HOWEVER, ELECTED TO GO AROUND DUE TO THE STRONG GUSTING CROSS WINDS HE ENCOUNTERED ON FINAL. THE GROUND WITNESS ON THE AIRPORT STATED THAT HE WATCHED THE ACCIDENT AIRCRAFT ON FINAL APPROACH. THE WITNESS OBSERVED THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS 'HAVING TROUBLE WITH CONTROL IN THE STRONG CROSS WIND.' HE REPORTED THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS AT ABOUT 30 FEET AGL ON FINAL WHEN A SUDDEN STRONG GUST 'LIFTED THE AIRPLANE UPSIDE DOWN AND THE PLANE THEN DROPPED AND STRUCK THE GROUND'.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, AND HIS FAILURE TO DISCONTINUE THE APPROACH WHEN IT BECAME EVIDENT THAT THE GUSTING CROSS WINDS WERE EXCEEDING THE ABILITY OF THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90DUJ04
- Event ID
- 20001213X29621
- Case number
- LAX90DUJ04
- 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: 70f293372f11388ff8fc2c1d4f1835669d50d9130fb6139cc0084d8e98228927; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:06:41.316Z.