LAX86MA074 · Beech 95-A55
Ark Distibuting Beech 95-A55 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86MA074
- 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
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 4
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 95-A55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N1494G
- Operator
- Ark Distibuting
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP), San Luis Obispo, 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- 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, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › Spiral, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARR, THE ACFT WAS VECTORED FOR AN LDA RWY 19R APCH. AFTER BEING CLRD FOR THE APCH, THE PLT WAS ADVISED THAT RADAR SVC WAS TERMINATED & TOLD TO CONTACT THE TWR. AT 2033 PST, HE RPRTD INBND AT THE FINAL APCH FIX & WAS CLRD FOR THE APCH.APRX 2 MIN LATER, HE DECLARED A MISSED APCH. THE TWR CONTROLLER (CTLR) INSTRUCTED THE PLT TO CONTACT TRAVIS DEP CTL, BUTONLY A 'GARBLED' REPLY WAS HEARD. THERE WAS NO FURTHER RDO CONTACT WITH THE ACFT. AFTER CROSSING THE ARPT ON A SSE HDG, THE ACFT ENTERED A LEFT CLBG TURN AS IF TO BEGIN THE MISSED APCH PROCEDURE, THEN IT TURNED RGT AS IF TO BEGIN A DWNWND &BASE LEG FOR RWY 1L. WITNESSES RPRTD THE ACFT ENTERED CLDS & SHORTLY THEREAFTER, IT REAPPEARED IN A STEEP, DSCNDG, RGT TURN. IT THEN CRASHED INTO A DEPT STORE APRX 1 MI SOUTH OF THE ARPT WHILE IN A 32 DEG RGT BANK, 6 DEG NOSE LOW ATTITUDE.NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FND THAT WOULD HAVE LED TO THE ACDNT. THE WX (IN PART) WAS: 400' OBSCD, VIS 3/4 MI WITH FOG; SAME AS LDA MINS. MINS FOR CIRCLING APCH WERE 600' & 1 MI. NO COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER INSTALLED OR REQD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86MA074
- Event ID
- 20001214X38454
- Case number
- LAX86MA074
- 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 1985-12-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 87773805d76d946bb7828ea161d16a72b646b31e5f2981e364f134cdbb9be006; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:43:34.192Z.