LAX04CA242 · Vans Aircraft RV-9A
Vans Aircraft RV-9A · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From Gustine Airport (3O1) to The Sea Ranch Airport (CA51)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04CA242
- 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
Vans Aircraft RV-9A
- Aircraft type
- Vans RV-9
- 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
- N93AZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gustine Airport (3O1), Gustine, CATo The Sea Ranch Airport (CA51), The Sea Ranch, 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
- Landing · aborted
- 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 object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not maintained
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 impacted trees during an aborted landing. On final approach, with the airplane on runway centerline, the pilot encountered turbulence. Upon touchdown, the airplane bounced and veered to the left. As the airplane approached the left edge of the runway, the pilot opted to abort the landing. After the airplane became airborne, it encountered a gust of wind and continued the left drift. About 10 feet above ground level, the airplane impacted trees that bordered the left side of the runway. A witness reported to the pilot, that he felt a gust of wind while watching the airplane collide with the surrounding trees. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate compensation for gusty crosswind conditions and failure to maintain proper runway alignment, resulting in a collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04CA242
- Event ID
- 20040708X00925
- Case number
- LAX04CA242
- 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: a2c919706bd9d809d217610364fc89619dedecffb613f031e7af59bd90831e35; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:18:34.361Z.