LAX04CA104 · Beech F33A
Beech F33A · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Shoshone Airport (L61) to North Las Vegas Airport (VGT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04CA104
- 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
- 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 F33A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 33
- 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
- N33HY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shoshone Airport (L61), Shoshone, CATo North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), Las Vegas, NV
- 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
- 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/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(cfi) › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Airspeed, not attained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Weather evaluation, inadequate
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 the ground during takeoff, and came to rest inverted. A certified flight instructor (CFI) and a private pilot undergoing familiarization training in the airplane had flown to the airport earlier on the day of the accident. Prior to the accident takeoff, the windsock was indicating variable winds from 290 degrees. The CFI and the student had a brief discussion about downhill and downwind takeoffs. After a preflight, they taxied to the runway. The airplane did not accelerate as expected, and the remaining runway was insufficient to abort. The CFI said he continued the takeoff and "forced the aircraft to fly at a very low airspeed." The airplane was at a very high angle of attack and the CFI realized the airplane would not accelerate so he extended the flaps to 15 degrees to lower the stall speed. In spite of efforts to regain flying speed, the airplane settled to the ground with the landing gear extended. After touchdown, the CFI reduced the power, and the nose gear collapsed. The tail of the airplane then came over the top, and the airplane came to rest inverted. Other pilots at the airport indicated that the wind had been "on and off" all morning, and had been as high as 15 to 20 knots. The CFI believed that the wind picked up during the time from engine start to the takeoff roll. He did not recheck the windsock. The CFI said that no mechanical malfunctions were noted with the airplane prior to the accident. To prevent future accidents the CFI recommended completing a final check on the wind direction, prior to starting the takeoff roll. The airplane was equipped with a "throw-over" yoke that was positioned in front of the CFI, who was the flying pilot. The runway was 2,380 feet long and 30 feet wide.
Probable cause
the CFI's failure to verify the wind direction prior to takeoff, which resulted in his failure to attain an adequate airspeed and led to an inadvertent stall-mush. The short runway and variable winds were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04CA104
- Event ID
- 20040306X00278
- Case number
- LAX04CA104
- 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, coordinates. 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: c196d34b71f3ed55b1935bc6a57c4942c3e7a8fc0dccb4a32cf774d024a0659f; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:19:33.969Z.