LAX85LA029 · Beech C24R
Beech C24R · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Willows Glenn County Airport (WLW) to 106 · Dunsmuir, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX85LA029
- 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
Beech C24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 24
- 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
- N66342
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Willows Glenn County Airport (WLW), Willows, CATo 106 · Dunsmuir, CA
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, not understood
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not understood
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Wheels up landing, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT MADE A FORCED LANDING IN A PASTURE AND COLLIDED WITH A COW AFTER THE ENGINE QUIT. THE PLT SAID HE HAS NOTICED THE LANDING GEAR IN TRANSIT LIGHT COME ON AT ABOUT 10 MINUTE INTERVALS DURING THE FLT. HE SAID HE HAD NOTICED A RED FLUID DRIPPING FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE RT WING DURING HIS PREFLT. AT DESTINATION THE LANDING GEAR WOULD NOT EXTEND. THE IN TRANSIT LIGHT CAME ON BUT THE GEAR DOWN INDICATION DID NOT ACTIVATE. HE SAID HE TRIED TO ACTIVATE THE EMERGENCY EXTENSION SYSTEM BUT COULD NOT OPEN THE COVER. HE MADE A RADIO CALL IN AN ATTEMPT TO GET HELP ON HOW TO OPEN THE EMERGENCY GEAR EXTENSION VALVE COVER. WHILE CIRCLING THE ACFT RAN OUT OF GAS. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION SHOWED A LEAK IN THE RT GEAR ACTUATOR. THE HYDRAULIC RESERVIOR WAS ALMOST EMPTY. THE PUMP WAS UNABLE TO BUILD UP PRESSURE TO EXTEND THE GEAR. THE 'O' RING WAS UNSEATED IN THE RIGHT ACTUATOR. THE EMERGENCY COVER WAS OPENED WITHOUT DIFFICULTY AFTER THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX85LA029
- Event ID
- 20001214X41415
- Case number
- LAX85LA029
- 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 1984-10-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6c42ddbdb4f1badaeb74c4418c09c0653a99fda65f63441b79e59bc8a13d93c4; retrieved 2026-09-23T18:54:06.844Z.