LAX90LA001 · Cessna 501
Cessna 501 · Accident: hard landing
From Scottsdale Airport (SDL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA001
- 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 501
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 501
- 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
- N617CC
- Operator
- O'Conner, Harry · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZTo 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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 › Flare, not attained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Recovery from bounced landing, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARRIVAL, THE PLT CONTACTED SEDONA UNICOM & WAS ADVISED THAT RWY 21 WAS IN USE & THAT THE WINDS WERE GUSTING TO 25 KTS. HE RPRTD THAT TURBULENCE WAS STRONG THRU-OUT THE TRAFFIC PATTERN. FULL FLAPS WERE LOWERED ON FINAL APCH. A STRONG DOWNDRAFT WAS ENCOUNTERED ON FINAL APCH & POWER WAS INCREASED 'TO MAINTAIN VASI AND VREF.' TURBULENCE & A DOWNDRAFT WERE RPRTD TO BE EXCEPTIONALLY STRONG OVER THE THRESHOLD. THE PLT STATED THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN ON ALL 3 GEAR, THEN IT PITCHED UP & BEGAN TO PORPOISE WITH INCREASING AMPLITUDE. ON THE 2ND TOUCHDOWN, POWER WAS APPLIED, BUT THE ENG NEEDED 5 TO 7 SEC TO SPOOL UP. THE PLT SAID THAT AFTER THE ACFT PORPOISE 3 TIMES, IT WAS IN A STALL FROM WHICH IT WOULD NOT RECOVER. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT WENT OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY, CROSSED A PARALLEL TAXIWAY & ENTERED A WOODED AREA BEFORE STOPPING. NO MECHANICAL PROBLEM OF THE ACFT WAS RPRTD THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT WHICH RESULTED IN HIS INABILITY TO FLARE THE AIRCRAFT AND/OR RECOVER FROM A BOUNCED LANDING. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: CROSSWIND, GUSTS, TURBULENCE, DOWNDRAFT, AND THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR WIND CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA001
- Event ID
- 20001213X29630
- Case number
- LAX90LA001
- 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: e117fef2912c1ceda18cc5d93ec3c0114aaa9abf7d5b26d85354e0251a6c5f34; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:06:25.550Z.