LAX03FA111 · Beech 3NM
Beech 3NM · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Flabob Airport (RIR) to 4LO · Anza, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX03FA111
- 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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 3NM
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 3
- 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
- N14437
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flabob Airport (RIR), Riverside, CATo 4LO · Anza, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- 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 › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane collided with terrain while maneuvering in the base to final turn for landing. According to a witness, the airplane approached from the north and circled the airport in a counterclockwise orbit. It turned south (left) after crossing the departure end of runway 28, and flew parallel to the south side of the runway. During this turn, the landing gear came down. A witness observed it turn left base for landing. Throughout this sequence the engines sounded steady and smooth. It remained in the left turn, and then appeared to cross the extended centerline of the runway. Then the left turn increased sharply so that the wings were about 90 degrees to the horizon. The nose of the airplane then dropped abruptly to a nearly vertical position. The witness heard the engines sounds change like they were popping or stalling. The airplane maintained the nose low attitude until it hit the ground and burst into flames. Post accident examination did not reveal any evidence of engine malfunction or anomalies with the control system. Three of the four propeller blades exhibited chordwise striations; fire consumed the outboard portion of the remaining blade. The pilot did not hold a multiengine rating and had owned the airplane since 1978.
Probable cause
the failure of the pilot to maintain an adequate airspeed resulting in a stall and loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX03FA111
- Event ID
- 20030315X00339
- Case number
- LAX03FA111
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-03-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1fdf01d8c0af421b43972665883df91495b2f418f94083a9753aaa7572acf9e3; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:24:23.919Z.