Samaritan Health Services Cessna 441 accident
Cessna 441 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA119
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 441
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 441
- 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
- N6858S
- Operator
- Samaritan Health Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZTo Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG), Flagstaff, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Electrical system › Undetermined
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Flagstaff, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS ON AN EMERG MED SVC (EMS/MED-EVAC) FLT WITH A PLT & FLT NURSE ABOARD TO TRANSPORT A MATERNITY PATIENT FM FLAGSTAFF TO PHOENIX. DRG A NGT ARRIVAL, THE PLT BGN A VOR-A APCH IN IMC, THEN HE RPRTD A PROBLEM WITH HIS AVIONICS & ELECTED TO MAKE A MISSED APCH. DRG THE MISSED APCH, HE SAID THAT HE 'LOST' AN INVERTER, THEN RPRTD THE GYROS WERE INOP. RADAR VECTORS WERE BEING PROVIDED WHEN HE STATED 'WE HAVE BIG TROUBLE HERE.' SOON THEREAFTER, RADAR & RADIO CTC WERE LOST & THE ACFT CRASHED APRX 7 MI SE OF THE ARPT. DRG IMPACT, THE ACFT MADE A DEEP CRATER & WAS DEMOLISHED. NO PREIMPACTENG OR AIRFRAME FAILURE WAS FND. AN INV REVEALED THE #2 (COPLT'S) ATTITUDE INDCR WAS INOP ON THE PREV FLT. A DISCREPANCYRPRT WAS TAKEN TO THE AVIONICS DEPT, BUT THE REQD ENTRY WAS NOT MADE IN THE ACFT FORM-4. THE PLT TKOF BEFORE CORRECTIVE ACTION WAS TAKEN. THE OPNS MANUAL REQD 1000 HRS MULTI-ENG TIME AS PIC & TRNG BY DESIGNATED CFI'S. THE PLT HAD APRX 837 HRS MULTI-ENG TIME, RECD 9 TRNG FLTS IN N6858S WITH NON-DESIGNATED INSTRUCTORS, COMPLETED A PART 135 FLT CHK ON 2/17/88.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA119
- Event ID
- 20001213X30254
- Case number
- LAX87FA119
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-02-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6c83339e618a617eafab67e7ef4937d2c543ef85da9351e6f731e0b46fe94000; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:14:56.901Z.