WPR21LA312 · Lake LA-4 388
Lake LA-4 388 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Whiteman Airport (WHP) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR21LA312
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Lake LA-4 388
- Aircraft type
- Lake LA-4
- 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
- N7615L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Whiteman Airport (WHP), Pacoima, CATo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 53 years (built 1968)
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the amphibious airplane reported that, after landing on the water he taxied to a boat ramp where he drained water out of the airplane before he took off from the top of the boat ramp. Once airborne, he established a climb attitude, but the airplane was not able to maintain a climb. He further added that there was insufficient time to raise the landing gear before the airplane landed on the water. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and aft fuselage and empennage. A witness reported that he assisted the pilot in pulling the airplane out of the water and onto the boat ramp. The water was drained out of the airplane, and then the pilot commenced with the takeoff. The witness further reported that the airplane struck a tree branch before it impacted the water. Review of recorded video provided by the witness showed that the airplane departed from the top of a declining concrete boat ramp and became airborne just before the waterline at the bottom of the ramp. Throughout the takeoff sequence, the engine could be heard with no noticeable changes in sound. The video showed the airplane briefly remained airborne at a low altitude before it descended into the water. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector interviewed the pilot. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to establish a positive climb rate after takeoff, which resulted in an impact with an object.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR21LA312
- Event ID
- 20210810103673
- Case number
- WPR21LA312
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, cause areas. 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: e91e7d37352798476fb6ee659f0654340422f6528f35bff992439d6fec3266e8; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:23:52.827Z.