LAX94LA368 · North American SNJ-5
North American SNJ-5 and North American SNJ-4 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA368
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · North American SNJ-5
- Aircraft type
- North American SNJ-5
- 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
- N8540Z
- Operator
- Same As Registered Owner
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4SDTo 4SD · NV
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · North American SNJ-4
- Aircraft type
- North American SNJ-4
- 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
- N7404C
- Operator
- Same As Registered Owner
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4SDTo 4SD · NV
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
- Pilot of other aircraft › Distance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
TWO AIRPLANE'S COLLIDED WHILE PARTICIPATING IN AN AIR RACE NEAR THE AIRPORT. ONE AIRPLANE'S (REFERRED TO AS #1) LEFT WING AND EMPENNAGE SEPARATED IN FLIGHT AND CRASHED INTO A RESIDENCE; THE OTHER AIRPLANE (REFERRED TO AS #2) LANDED AT THE AIRPORT WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENCE. THE POSTACCIDENT WRECKAGE EXAMINATION AND VIDEO TAPES OF THE OCCURRENCE SHOWED THAT AIRPLANE #1 OVERTOOK AND STRUCK AIRPLANE #2'S RIGHT WING FROM BELOW. AIRPLANE #1 PITCHED UP, THE EMPENNAGE SEPARATED, AND THE LEFT WING FOLDED. AIRPLANE #1 BEGAN TO CARTWHEEL AND SPIN UNTIL IT CRASHED.
Probable cause
that the pilot misjudged the distance between his and the other airplane. The pilot's diverted attention to the start of the air race is a factor in this accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA368
- Event ID
- 20001206X02293
- Case number
- LAX94LA368
- 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: c3b8c8e08c210df811247ae3ac5ed6b3d4b3fea13b421ea0982f788372017070; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:00:22.364Z.