LAX86FVD02 · John Patrick Coleman BENSEN B-8M BENSEN B-8
John Patrick Coleman BENSEN B-8M BENSEN B-8 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From 033 · Eureka, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86FVD02
- 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
- 1 · 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
John Patrick Coleman BENSEN B-8M BENSEN B-8
- Aircraft type
- John Patrick Coleman BENSEN B-8M
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N4579C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 033 · Eureka, CATo 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft handling, improper
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Maneuver, excessive
- Pilot in command › Stall, uncontrolled
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ON NOVEMBER 12, 1985, AT APPROXIMATELY 1345 PST AN AMATEUR BUILT BENSEN B-8M AIRCRAFT OWNED AND OPERATED BY JOHN PATRICK COLEMAN CRASHED WHILE ON A PLEASURE FLIGHT. VFR CONDITIONS PREVAILED AND NO FLIGHT PLAN WAS FILED. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DESTROYED AND THE PILOT RECEIVED FATAL INJURIES. THE PILOT HELD A PRIVATE CERTIFICATE. THE FLIGHT ORIGINATED AT EUREKA MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, EUREKA, CALIFORNIA, AT APPROXIMATELY 1420 PST. A WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT ON DEPARTURE 'MAKE A SHRP TURN CAUSING THE AIRCRAFT TO INVERT AND FALL TO THE EARTH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86FVD02
- Event ID
- 20001214X38257
- Case number
- LAX86FVD02
- 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: 77a1d541b451a57ce8c0d155cf0f4aae2653126a3474bd118ab3116a72fdf4dd; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:46:36.036Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states "THE AIRCRAFT WAS DESTROYED AND THE PILOT RECEIVED FATAL INJURIES" after the gyroplane inverted and fell to the earth on departure; the record showed substantial damage.