LAX99FA150 · Beech 36

The pilot contacted FSS and requested weather at several local San Diego airports. He was told to expect low IFR conditions with visibility less than 1/4 mile in fog and indefinite ceilings of 100 feet. The pilot then obtained a clearance to enter the Class B airspace using a fictitious call sign. He requested and was issued an IFR clearance to the airport, and was later cleared for the ILS runway 28R approach. Prior to issuing the approach clearance, the controller asked the pilot what his intentions would be when he made the missed approach. The pilot replied that he would want radar vectors for a second approach. Numerous times on the approach the controller either asked the pilot if he was receiving the glideslope satisfactorily, or told him his position and what his altitude along the approach segments should have been. The controller issued two low altitude alerts; the final one at the outer marker where the airplane was observed 300 feet low. Recorded radar data showed that the airplane was consistently below ATC assigned and charted minimum descent altitudes for most of the approach. The airplane collided with trees and the ground about 1 mile short of the runway. Two ground witnesses reported hearing a loud noise and began looking for the source of the noise. They almost ran over the downed trees and the burning aircraft wreckage before acquiring it visually due to the dense fog. None of the pilot's personal logbooks or aircraft records could be located to establish his instrument currency, although the pilot's daughter stated that he flew fairly frequently. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no abnormalities in either the engine or the airframe. The day before the accident the same airplane had been observed entering Class B airspace and landing at a controlled field without an ATC clearance.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset