LAX83LVW02 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From 2L1 · Beatty, NV to Burbank, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83LVW02
- 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
Piper PA-28-161
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N8154X
- Operator
- John Dodd
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2L1 · Beatty, NVTo Burbank, 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
- Takeoff
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Beatty, NV, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT LANDED ON A 1700 LONG STRIP AT THE ELEVATION OF ABOUT 3500 FT MSL. HE ELECTED TO TAKEOFF TO THE NORTH IN CALM WIND CONDITIONS AND AVOID SUN GLARE OFF THE COVER OF HIS ENGINE AND ON THE WINDSHIELD. HE STATED THAT SOFT FIELD PROCEDURES WERE USED IN ORDER TO CLEAR A 30 FT HIGH POWER LINE CROSSING HIS PATH AT AN ANGLE. DURING TAKEOFF, HE PULLED THE NOSE UP TO CLEAR THE LINES. HE STATED THAT HE GOT ABOUT 20 T0 25 FT AGL WHEN THE POWER LINES STARTED COMING UP. HE BANKED LEFT TO AVOID THE LINES AND THE STALL WARNING HORN SOUNDED. WHEN HE KNEW THAT HE COULD NOT CLEAR THE LINES, HE SET THE PLANE DOWN IN A DRY WASH. THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT 600 FT FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY AND ALL GEAR COLLAPSED BEFORE IT CAME TO REST.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83LVW02
- Event ID
- 20020917X04890
- Case number
- LAX83LVW02
- 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: 1ec82e31d0017ca914a0bac0b0cd0bb4c72d40ca427769e0f6071e2654fe97ac; retrieved 2026-09-23T23:44:02.257Z.