LAX95FA016 · Piper PA-38-112
Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM) to Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95FA016
- 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
Piper PA-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2326G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM), Compton, CATo Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH), Fresno, 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A NIGHT CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT, THE AIRPLANE ENTERED A STEEP DESCENT AND CRASHED ON A 5-DEGREE DOWN-SLOPING OPEN FIELD. IMPACT OCCURRED IN AN ESTIMATED 45 TO 60 DEGREE, RIGHT BANK, DESCENDING TURN. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE OF THE AIRPLANE WAS FOUND. THE AIRPLANE'S LAST RECORDED ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS IN OCTOBER OF 1991. THE STUDENT PILOT'S CERTIFICATE HAD NOT BEEN ENDORSED FOR SOLO FLIGHT. AN ACQUAINTANCE AND A FAMILY MEMBER REPORTED THE PILOT HAD EXPERIENCED A STROKE ABOUT 4 YEARS EARLIER; HOWEVER, THE PILOT DID NOT NOTE THIS DURING APPLICATION FOR A THIRD-CLASS AVIATION MEDICAL/STUDENT PILOT CERTIFICATE. A PATHOLOGIST REPORTED THE PILOT HAD EXPERIENCED 'ARTERIOSCLEROTIC HYPERTENSIVE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE WITH LEFT MIDDLE CEREBRAL SUBARACHNOID HEMORRHAGE' AND THAT THIS MAY HAVE IMPAIRED HIS ABILITY TO OPERATE THE AIRPLANE. THREE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS WERE FOUND IN THE PILOT'S EFFECTS. ONE OF THESE CONTAINED A CAUTION, 'MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS;' HOWEVER, THE INVESTIGATION DID NOT VERIFY RECENT USE OF DRUG(S); A TOXICOLOGY TEST FOR ETHANOL WAS NEGATIVE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE FOR AN UNKNOWN REASON. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF QUALIFICATION/INSTRUCTOR ENDORSEMENT FOR A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT AT NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95FA016
- Event ID
- 20001206X02458
- Case number
- LAX95FA016
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-10-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 93035da09042f0e59bfd6531e6c456ce9e98d95be7681a0d515d323983658e0e; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:58:05.895Z.