California Aviation Services Beech C24R accident
Beech C24R · Accident: fire while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84LA093
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
- N3824R
- Operator
- California Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Disconnected
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Improper
- Fuel system, line › Burned
- Fuel system, line › Leak
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
FIRE ERUPTED IN THE ENG COMPARTMENT DURING THE ENG RUN-UP. INVESTIGAITON REVEALED THAT 7 OF THE 8 NUTS SECURING THE EXHAUST MANIFOLD TO THE CYLINDERS WERE MISSING. THE ONLY NUT PRESENT WAS LOOSE BUT RETAINED THE #1 CYL EXHAUST TUBE. THE #2 CYL EXHAUST TUBE, THOUGH NOT SECURED, WAS IN PLACE. THE #3 & #4 CYL EXHAUST TUBES WERE UNRESTRAINED & HAD DROPPEDDOWN, ALLOWING EXHAUST GASES TO ESCAPE. HEAT DAMAGE ALONG THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ENG WAS MUCH WORSE THAT ON THE RIGHT SIDE, & THE FUEL PUMP FUEL LINE WAS BURNED ENOUGH TO ALLOW FUEL UNDER PRESSURE TO ESCAPE INTO THE ENG COMPARTMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84LA093
- Event ID
- 20001214X45136
- Case number
- LAX84LA093
- 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 1983-11-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d7c20fc5ab46d8955628ee8cb201a59ddbb5df5034129270dbe1f2222c0808b3; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:50:22.689Z.