North Las Vegas - North Las Vegas

On July 21, 2005 at 05:07 PM, North Las Vegas - North Las Vegas experienced a crash involving Rockwell Grand Commander 680, operated by United States Forest Service - USFS, with the event recorded near North Las Vegas Nevada.

The flight was categorized as fire fighting and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

3 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 3 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 2, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The airplane descended into the ground during takeoff-initial climb on a local fire reconnaissance flight. Witnesses reported that airplane became airborne, but was not climbing, and it continued down the runway in a nose-up attitude in ground effect until impacting terrain about 600 feet southeast from the departure end of the runway. The ambient temperature was about 107 degrees Fahrenheit, and the density altitude was calculated at 5,878 feet mean sea level. On scene examination found the flaps in the 30-degree position, which also corresponded to the flap actuator position. The cockpit indicator for the flaps also showed a 30-degree extension. A subsequent bench test of the combined flap/gear selector valve was conducted. During the initial inspection, both the gear selector and the flap selector valves were bent, but otherwise operational. The "stop-pin" on the flap selector lever was missing. There was no leakage of fluid during this test. Examination of both engines revealed no abnormalities, which would prevent normal operations. The aircraft flight manual specifies that the flaps should be set at 1/4 down (10 degrees) for normal takeoff.

Aircraft reference details include registration N7UP, MSN 680-1349-29, year of manufacture 1963.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 36.2005°, -115.1215°.