LAX94FA185 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM) to McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94FA185
- 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
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N6242D
- Operator
- Darin Christenson
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM), Yuma, AZTo McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ), Carlsbad, CA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
IN A BRIEFING ON 4/8/94, THE PILOT(S) WERE ADVISED OF FORECAST FRONTAL ACTIVITY, GUSTY WINDS & TURBULENCE BELOW 15,000' ALONG THE ROUTE. THE INSTRUMENT STUDENT SAID THAT DURING FLIGHT ON 4/9/94, THEY ENTERED IFR CONDITIONS AT 8000' & HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE DUE TO DOWNDRAFTS. THE INSTRUCTOR (CFII) TOOK THE CONTROLS & WAS ALSO UNABLE TO GAIN OR MAINTAIN ALTITUDE. HE ADVISED THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER (ATC) OF THE PROBLEM & WAS CLEARED DOWN TO 7000'. SOON THEREAFTER, HE TOLD ATC THE PLANE WAS DESCENDING IN A DOWNDRAFT THROUGH 6300'. ATC ADVISED THE FLIGHT OF A LOW ALTITUDE ALERT & ASKED THEM TO MAINTAIN 7000'. THE CFII REPLIED THAT HE WAS TRYING & ASKED FOR A RADAR VECTOR. ATC WARNED THAT THE FLIGHT WAS BELOW MINIMUM VECTORING ALTITUDE & TO CLIMB AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THE DESCENT COULD NOT BE STOPPED & THE PLANE COLLIDED WITH A MOUNTAINSIDE AT THE 4800' LEVEL. PERSONNEL IN A NEARBY CABIN SAID THEY WERE ENVELOPED IN A FAST MOVING CLOUD BANK WITH HIGH WINDS. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE WAS FOUND, ALTHOUGH THE AIRCRAFT WAS DAMAGED BY IMPACT & GROUND FIRE.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT(S). FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE HIGH/MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AND ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94FA185
- Event ID
- 20001206X01116
- Case number
- LAX94FA185
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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. 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: 7ff3574752c1b5aa7d72882ff4c7211006fe7bb5feaca391005919e608a5f23b; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:12:01.917Z.