N77FH in Trouble: Las Vegas Controllers Guide a VFR Pilot to Boulder City

On February 15, 2022, Beech Bonanza N77FH was operating VFR toward Boulder City Airport when the pilot contacted Las Vegas TRACON and said assistance was needed. The account later published by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) describes an aircraft whose altitude situation had already become difficult to manage.

The pilot reported being at 19,300 feet while the aircraft’s Mode C altitude readout was not functioning. That put the flight above 18,000 feet in Class A airspace even though the pilot was not IFR qualified. A controller working the Granite sector coordinated with Los Angeles Center to protect the area around the aircraft.

The pilot subsequently reported seeing the ground and began a VFR descent toward Boulder City. After the aircraft was transferred to the Daggett sector, controllers continued the descent and issued a heading toward the airport. While descending through about 8,000 feet, the Bonanza turned sharply away from the assigned course. The instructor controller verified the heading, and the pilot corrected back toward the intended route.

The situation became more difficult when the aircraft encountered instrument conditions. NATCA reported that the pilot lost control and the Bonanza became inverted before control was regained. The aircraft then experienced a loss of engine power; the pilot restarted the engine and continued toward Boulder City with controller assistance.

The pilot still could not initially see Boulder City because of cloud cover and altitude. Controllers and others in the room worked with traffic on their frequencies to get the lights at the non-controlled airport turned on. The controller continued providing landing information and guidance until the pilot located the airport and landed safely.

NATCA later recognized the controllers involved with an Archie League Medal of Safety Award. The public account does not provide a complete set of exact clock times for the sequence, so the timeline below uses only the time and sequence information actually established by the available source.

The transfer to the Daggett sector did not end the difficulty. The new controllers had to establish the aircraft’s intentions, issue the Las Vegas altimeter and provide a vector toward Boulder City. When the Bonanza turned sharply away from the assigned heading, the instructor controller recognized that something was wrong and confirmed the heading with the pilot. The pilot acknowledged the correction and returned toward the intended course.

NATCA’s account describes the subsequent loss of control in instrument conditions as part of the same sequence. It says the aircraft became inverted, that the pilot regained control, and that engine power was then lost before the engine was restarted. The source does not provide an independent technical diagnosis of the engine-power interruption, so this reconstruction records it as an event rather than assigning a mechanical cause.

The later NATCA award recognition is useful because it independently documents the event after the fact. It identifies Matt Cox, Eric Joe, Dan Hauptman and Colby Alford and describes their actions during the February 15 event. The account is an organizational safety-award narrative rather than an accident investigation, so it is used here to establish the sequence and response, not to infer facts that the source does not state.