LAX87FA306 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C · Accident: fire during initial climb
From Clifton, AZ to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA306
- 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 421C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N26596
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Clifton, AZTo Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Lubricating system, oil line › Fractured
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT DEPTD RY 25 AT GREENLEE CTY ARPT, CLIFTON, AZ ON A VFR FLT TO PHOENIX, AZ. THE PLT & GND WITNESSES RPTD THAT SHORTLY AFTER LIFT-OFF, GRAYISH/WHITE SMOKE EMANATED FROM THE LEFT ENGINE. THE PLT WAS UNABLE TO FEATHER THE PROP, CIRCLED THE ARPT ABT 2 TIMES AT A LOW ALTITUDE AND LANDED BETWEEN THE RUNWAYS. THE POST CRASH INVESTIGATION DSCLSD THE FIRE ORIGINATED IN THE VICINITY OF THE LEFT ENGINE TURBOCHARGER. THE TURBOCHARGER OIL LINE HOUSING WAS FOUND FRACTURED. THE HOUSING WAS MISSING WHEN THE ENGINES WERE SHIPPED TO TELEDYNE CONTINENTAL MOTORS (TCM). THE ENGINE CRATES WERE OPENED BEFORE SAFETY BOARD INVESTIGATORS ARRIVED AT TCM TO CONDUCT THE ENGINE EXAMINATION. THE LEFT ENGINE EXAM DISCLSD EXTERNAL HIGH TEMP DISTRESS AND MINOR DETONATION SIGNATURES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA306
- Event ID
- 20001213X31835
- Case number
- LAX87FA306
- 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: 16ae41731d00eb851f5b44a0822cc9e207f4edc2fae2010c89de943643c6c2d7; retrieved 2026-09-23T12:22:41.843Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states "THE FLT DEPTD RY 25 AT GREENLEE CTY ARPT, CLIFTON, AZ ON A VFR FLT TO PHOENIX"; the departure was not recorded.