LAX86FA288 · Cessna T210N
Scottsdale Aero Mech Flying CL Cessna T210N · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Scottsdale Airport (SDL) to P06 · Bullhead City, AZ
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86FA288
- 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
- 6 · 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 T210N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N5534Y
- Operator
- Scottsdale Aero Mech Flying CL
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZTo P06 · Bullhead City, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Descent, excessive
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT, WHO HAD ACCUMULATED APPROXIMATELY 450 HOURS OF FLIGHT EXPERIENCE AND HIS 5 PASSENGERS, ARRIVED AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT DURING DARKNESS. THIS WAS THE PILOT'S FIRST LANDING AT THE UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT AND HE WAS NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE TRAFFIC PATTERN. ON HIS ARRIVAL HE ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN ON A RIGHT DOWNWIND LEG TO RUNWAY 35. THIS PATTERN WAS CONTRARY TO THE PUBLISHED PATTERN AND THE LIGHTED SEGMENTED CIRCLE VISUAL TRAFFIC PATTERN INDICATOR ON THE AIRPORT. HE WAS UNABLE TO COMLETE HIS FIRST ATTEMPT TO LAND AND MADE A GO-AROUND. AFTER CLIMBING PAST THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY THE PILOT MADE A LEFT STEEP TURN OF APPROXIMATELY 225 DEGREES. THE TURN PLACED THE AIRCRAFT ON A RIGHT DOWNWIND TO RUNWAY 35 AND IT DESCENDED INTO HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION LINES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86FA288
- Event ID
- 20001213X34199
- Case number
- LAX86FA288
- 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 1986-07-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 67b53f545f716229ecdafade524c4c3a6e272b722f925c9d820806759844a3e5; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:29:29.822Z.