Skip to content

LAX84LA202

1984-02-27 · EMIGRANT GAP, California, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport BLU

N25592 has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BALLOON WORKS FIREFLY 7B-15, built 1992), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE STUDENT & INSTRUCTOR PLT (CFI) WERE ON A DUAL X-COUNTRY FLT. THEY PROCEEDED TO FLY TO AN UNATTENDED ARPT AT EMIGRANT GAP, CA, WHICH WAS AT AN ELEVATION OF 5284 FT. AFTER ARRIVING, THEY CIRCLED THE ARPT & MADE A LOW PASS OVER THE RWY. THEY SAW TRACKS ON THE RWY & ASSUMED THAT ACFT HAD BEEN OPERATING FROM THE ARPT. (LATER, THEY LEARNED THAT THE TRACKS HAD BEEN MADE BY SNOW MOBILE TYPE VEHICLES.) THE CFI ASKED THE STUDENT TO MAKE A SOFT FIELD APCH & LANDING, THEN IMMEDIATELY GO AROUND WITHOUT LOWERING THE NOSE. HOWEVER, WHEN THE MAIN GEAR TOUCHED DOWN, THE WET, UNPACKED SNOW CREATED SUFFICIENT DRAG TO CAUSE THE NOSE TO DROP. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED & THE ACFT NOSED OVER. THE ARPT/FACILITY DIRECTORY STATED THAT THE ARPT WAS UNATTENDED & WAS CLOSED IN WINTER. THE INSTRUCTOR HAD NOT CHECKED THIS DIRECTORY, BUT HAD CHECKED 2 PRIVATE PUBLICATIONS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1984_LAX84LA202.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type. All research papers