LAX04LA178 · Beech V35

The airplane collided with terrain during the takeoff initial climb. The pilot arrived at the airport the previous day and asked several questions of a locally based flight instructor, saying he was concerned about mountainous operations and leaning the mixture on the engine. A certified flight instructor answered the pilot's questions and felt that the pilot appeared to be a low-time private pilot that had not flown recently. On the accident flight departure, the pilot crossed a runway hold line while taxiing to the runway for takeoff. The air traffic controller queried the pilot and the pilot, who then requested a different runway. During the takeoff roll, the pilot queried the tower controller if there were noise abatement procedures. The airplane traveled approximately 5,000 feet down the 7,214-foot-runway prior to lifting off. It continued down the runway about 12 feet above ground level, and pilot witnesses said the engine did not sound like it was producing full power. The witnesses said the airplane was "wallowing" as it flew down the length of the remaining runway. The airplane barely cleared the airport perimeter fence and touched down about 80 yards from the fence. After the airplane collided with a series of obstacles, a post-impact fire consumed the airplane. Post accident examination by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector prior to disturbance of the wreckage revealed that the cockpit mixture control was approximately 3 inches aft of its full rich position. The engine was installed in an instrumented test cell and it ran smoothly, though it only produced a maximum of 2,550 rpm during the test run. The airport elevation is 5,140 feet msl. Based on the pilot's logbook entries, he had limited mountain flying experience and normally took a southern route when flying across country.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset