Reno Flying Service Rockwell 690 accident
Rockwell 690 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) to 057
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA239
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Rockwell 690
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell 690
- 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
- N662DM
- Operator
- Reno Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, NVTo 057
- 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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 › Flight controls, inadvertent use
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › Visual/aural perception
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT CONDITIONS FOR THE AIR AMBULANCE TRIP CONSISTED OF A CLEAR, MOONLESS, DARK NIGHT AND THE DEST ARPT WAS IN A MTN VALLEY WITH THE ONLY GROUND REFERENCE LIGHTS THE TOWN ADJACENT TO THE ARPT. WITNESSES SAW THE ACFT OVERFLY THE TOWN AND ARPT AT PATTERN ALT THEN HEAD OUT OVER THE LAKE NORTH OF THE ARPT. ABOUT 1 MILE FROM THE RWY, THE ACFT WAS SEEN TO SUDDENLY PITCH UP, ROLL INVERTED AND DIVE STRAIGHT DOWN INTO THE LAKE. THE ACFT WAS HEADING AWAY FROM THE ONLY GND REF LIGHTS AND WAS OVER A REFLECTIVE BODY OF WATER NEAR THE BASE TURN POINT WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. WITNESSES HEARD INCREASED ENG/PROP NOISE BEFORE IMPACT. WRECKAGE REVEALED EVIDENCE OF PWR AT IMPACT. THE SHIFTS FOR THE PLTS IN THE OPERATION CONSISTED OF 4 DAYS ON, 2 DAYS OFF, WITH ALTERNATING DAY AND NIGHT SHIFTS. THE PLT WAS ON THE 4TH NIGHT OF THE CURRENT SHIFT CYCLE AND WAS ALSO GIVING FLT INSTRUCTION DURING THE DAYS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA239
- Event ID
- 20001213X31219
- Case number
- LAX87FA239
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 1585006d74deaf645119317b3a7165f624ffd664d1a12c30e650c41c3e285be9; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:14:13.503Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N662DM; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.