LAX86LA198 · Cessna 501
Cessna 501 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA198
- 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
- N46MT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), Lubbock, TXTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Weather condition › Windshear
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BASED ON THE FLT'S LANDING WEIGHT, AN APPROACH REF SPEED OF 99 KNOTS WAS CALCULATED BY THE PILOT. HE REPORTED THAT 115 KNOTS WAS USED DURING THE APPROACH. THE PILOT SAID THAT DURING THE DESCENT TO THE AIRPORT, ONE AIRCRAFT WAS HEARD TO MAKE A GO-AROUND 'DUE TO WINDS, BUT LANDED SUCCESSFULLY ON THE SECOND LANDING.' AT BETWEEN 50 AND 35 FT AGL ON SHORT FINAL TO RWY 29, THE PILOT NOTED THE AIRSPEED 'INSTANTANEOUSLY WENT FROM 115 KTS TO 85 KTS,' AND FULL POWER APPLICATION AND CONTROL INPUTS TO ARREST THE DESCENT DID NOT STOP THE AIRCRAFT FROM TOUCHING DOWN HARD ON THE RWY. THE AIRPORT MANAGER ESTIMATED THAT THE WINDS AT THE TIME WERE FROM THE NW AT 15 GUSTING 30 TO 35 KTS. THE TWEB RTE 426 FORCAST, WHICH INCLUDED THE AREA OF THE AIRPORT, STATED THAT 'NW WINDS ACROSS RIDGES AND THRU PASSES BETWEEN 20 AND 45 KTS WITH LOCALLY HIGHER GUSTS' IN ADDITION TO 'MTN WAVE CONDITIONS WITH AREAS OF WIND SHEAR' WERE EXPECTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA198
- Event ID
- 20001213X33333
- Case number
- LAX86LA198
- 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 1986-04-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 756a043305c7256352eac52db4fe3e4f93265ba2d682973248457aedebea2980; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:46:59.934Z.