LAX84FUG02 · Phaneuf B8 MOD GYRO B8 MOD GYR
Phaneuf B8 MOD GYRO B8 MOD GYR · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Murrieta, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84FUG02
- 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
Phaneuf B8 MOD GYRO B8 MOD GYR
- Aircraft type
- Phaneuf B8
- 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
- N8474
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Murrieta, 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
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Murrieta, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS OBSERVED THE GYROCOPTER CIRCLE THE APRT. ON THE SECOND TIME AROUND, IT DROPPED DOWN LOW ON THE DOWNWIND LEG AND DISAPPEARED BEHIND A SMALL HILL. HE ALSO STATED THE ENG WAS RUNNING AT FULL POWER AND THAT HE COULD HEAR THE ROTOR BLADES STRIKE THE GROUND WHEN THE GYROCOTER CRASHED. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND DURING THE INVESTIGATION. TOXICOLOGICAL TESTS SHOWED THAT THE PLT'S BLOOD/ALCOHOL LEVEL WAS 0.110%.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84FUG02
- Event ID
- 20001214X41109
- Case number
- LAX84FUG02
- 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 1984-09-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 27dffa4d128102ce1b11b31bfcd2a136d667f0ab2a1481b9964d90bebe513f95; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:21:41.986Z.