LAX83FA083 · Mitsubishi MU-2B-60
Mitsubishi MU-2B-60 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY) to Scottsdale Airport (SDL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA083
- 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
Mitsubishi MU-2B-60
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N440MA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, COTo Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, 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
- En route · descent
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT DIVERTED FROM SCOTTSDALE AZ TO A FLT COURSE TO SEDONA BECAUSE OF THUNDERSTORMS & HIGH WINDS AT SCOTTSDALE, BUT AFTER A RADIO CONVERSATION WITH SCOTTSDALE TWR, THE PLT DECIDED TO REROUTE TO LAND AT SCOTTSDALE. THE PLT DID NOT READ BACK THE WEATHER CORRECTLY TO SCOTTSDALE TWR. AFTER DESCENDING IN RAIN AND TURBULENCE, THE PLT REPORTED TO SCOTTSDALE AT1857 THAT 'WE THINK WE HAVE THE ARPT AT NINE O'CLOCK.' THE PLT WAS CLEARED TO MAKE A VISUAL APPROACH TO RWY 21. THE TWR NEVER ESTABLISHED VISUAL CONTACT WITH THE ACFT & WAS UNABLE TO MAKE FURTHER RADIO CONTACT THE LAST RECORDED RADAR CONTACT SHOWED THE ACFT AT 2200 FT DESCENDING, 2 MILES FROM SCOTTSDALE ON A BEARING OF 075 DEGREES. THE ACFT CONTACTED THE GROUND LEFT WING & NOSE LOW IN A LANDING CONFIGURATION ON A HEADING OF ABOUT 300 DEGREES. THE ACFT SLID ABOUT 770 FT, LOSING THE ENGINES, WINGS & LANDING GEAR BEFORE STOPPING. A POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE SHOWED NO SIGNS OF PRE-IMPACT CONDITIONS THAT WOULD HAVE AFFECTED NORMAL OPERATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA083
- Event ID
- 20001214X42015
- Case number
- LAX83FA083
- 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 1983-01-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e1dfc9eae74f6db145ab81c5a2d1c3b1817b298c9387ede028b5059bd3853b32; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:15:14.064Z.