Lifeguard Air Ambulance Cessna 421B accident
Cessna 421B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while taxiing
From Pensacola International Airport (PNS) to Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA01LA040
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 421B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N781SL
- Operator
- Lifeguard Air Ambulance
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pensacola International Airport (PNS)To Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS), Valparaiso, FL
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- 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
- Landing gear, main gear strut scissors › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After takeoff the landing gear would not retract and the landing gear warning horn sounded. The pilot continued to the destination airport and when weather prevented a landing, he returned to the departure airport. After landing the aircraft swerved to the left and the left main gear tire could be heard squealing. The aircraft went off the side of the runway and the left main gear collapsed and separated. Post crash examination of the aircraft showed the washer, which retains the bolt in the left main gear scissors, had failed and the scissors had separated. This allowed the gear to turn and prevented the gear from retracting due to the ground switch on the scissors not being able to open during takeoff. The failed washer was the subject of Cessna Aircraft Company, Service Information Letter ME83-37, dated November 23, 1983. This letter called for replacement of this washer with a thicker washer at the next routine 100-hour inspection.
Probable cause
The failure of the left main landing gear scissors washer during taxi for takeoff, and collapse of the left main landing gear. A factor in the accident was the failure of unknown maintenance personnel to comply with a manufacturers service letter concerning the scissors washers.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA01LA040
- Event ID
- 20001226X45490
- Case number
- MIA01LA040
- 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 2000-12-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d9434a48a9371b0364a3722cadc8e0d161ffcf627de3c311b47291d7bc44edb3; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:19:02.013Z.