LAX87FA257 · Beech A60
Beech A60 · Accident before flight
From Santa Rosa, CA to Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA257
- 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
- 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
Beech A60
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 60
- 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
- N7485D
- Operator
- Gerlach, John · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Rosa, CATo Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL), SO. LAKE TAHOE, CA
- 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
- Prior to flight
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 › Airspeed(vso), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIC & HIS WIFE PLANNED A 30 MIN PLEASURE FLT TO LAKE TAHOE. PRIOR TO DEPARTURE THE PLT FAILED TO VISUALLY INSPECT THE AMOUNT OF FUEL IN THE RT WING TANK. THE TANK WAS FULL. THE TANK'S CAP PROBABLY APPEARED TO BE SECURED WHEN, IN FACT, BECAUSE OF A UNIQUE DESIGN CHARACTERISTIC, IT WAS MERELY RESTING ON TOP OF THE FILLER NECK. UPON TAKEOFF ROTATION THE CAP CAME OFF THE FILLER NECK & IT WAS FOLLOWED BY A FUEL SPRAY. THE PLT RESPONDED & STAYED IN A VERY LOW ALTITUDE & CLOSE-IN TRAFFIC PATTERN. HE ATTEMPTED TO LAND IMMEDIATELY. HE LOST CONTROL DURING THE TURN TO FINAL, STALLED AND COLLIDED WITH THE PAVEMENT PRIOR TO REACHING THE THRESHOLD.
Probable cause
PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED ON FINAL APPROACH WHICH RESULTED INTHE AIRCRAFT STALLING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA257
- Event ID
- 20001213X31544
- Case number
- LAX87FA257
- 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: 9a6fb115454ace4753d8ace90ccc5f8dea12afcb6eb44878066b1e1b4ef15e31; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:05:00.976Z.