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LAX83LVM11 · Beech 55

19 Sept 1983 · Watsonville, CA, United States

Beech 55 · Accident: complete gear collapsed during landing

From MPY · Monterey, CA to Watsonville Municipal Airport (WVI)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX83LVM11
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 55

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
N18ER
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From MPY · Monterey, CATo Watsonville Municipal Airport (WVI)
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
Complete gear collapsed
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 › Checklist, inattentive
  • Pilot in command › Diverted attention
  • Pilot in command › Gear extension, not identified
  • Pilot in command › Unsafe/hazardous condition warning, not understood
  • Pilot in command › Wheels up landing, performed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT WAS LANDED WITH THE GEAR RETRACTED. THE PLT STATED THAT HE LOWERED THE GEAR BUT RAISED IT WHEN THE TOWER REQUESTED THAT HE CIRCLE WHILE EQUIPMENT WAS CLEARED FROM THE RWY. WHEN HE WAS CLEARED TO LAND HE APPROACHED THE RWY ANDAS HE DID SO SAW A PERSON ON THE GROUND WAVING AT HIM BUT HE DID NOT ASSOCIATE IT WITH THE GEAR BEING UP. THE WAVING HE SAID DISTRACTED HIM FROM MAKING HIS FINAL GEAR CHECK AND THE LANDING WAS MADE GEAR UP.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX83LVM11
Event ID
20001214X44611
Case number
LAX83LVM11
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: 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: 5562d426ddf74d1c1d07456c051168740af3464bc12455afd622164e42e1de9d; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:20:26.123Z.