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LAX95LA018 · Piper PA-28-181

20 Oct 1994 · Rialto, CA, United States

Calif Intl. School of Aviation Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

From Brackett Field (POC) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX95LA018
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
0 · 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-28-181

Aircraft type
Piper PA-28
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
N8760F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Brackett Field (POC), BRACKET FIELD, CATo not recorded
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) REPORTED THAT DURING THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT HE WAS TRYING TO TEACH HIS PRESOLO STUDENT HOW TO PERFORM A FORWARD SLIP AND LANDING. THE CFI INDICATED THAT THE STUDENT INITIATED THE ASSIGNED SLIP, AND THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED TOWARD RUNWAY 24. DURING THE APPROACH, THE CFI APPLIED CORRECTIONS TO THE AMOUNT OF PITCH HIS STUDENT WAS USING, AND AT TIMES HE ALSO MADE CORRECTIONS TO THE FLIGHT PATH. WHEN THE STUDENT INITIATED THE LANDING FLARE, HE PULLED THE YOKE UP 'FAST AND A LITTLE HIGH,' AND THE AIRPLANE STARTED DRIFTING LEFT. THE CFI STATED THAT BETWEEN 3 AND 5 SECONDS BEFORE TOUCHDOWN, HE TOOK THE CONTROLS FROM HIS STUDENT AND INITIATED CORRECTIVE ACTION. THE AIRPLANE, HOWEVER, TOUCHED DOWN HARD SEVERAL FEET LEFT OF THE RUNWAY CENTERLINE, AND HE LOST CONTROL OF IT. THE AIRPLANE VEERED OFF THE 4,500-FOOT-LONG BY 100-FOOT-WIDE RUNWAY AND CAME TO REST ON A NORTHEASTERLY HEADING IN AN OPEN FIELD OF WEEDS. NEITHER THE CFI NOR THE STUDENT REPORTED HAVING EXPERIENCED ANY MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WITH THE AIRPLANE.

Probable cause

the flight instructor's loss of airplane control during the landing flare as a result of his inadequate supervision of the flight and delayed corrective action over his presolo student's control inputs.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX95LA018
Event ID
20001206X02475
Case number
LAX95LA018
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: 04d6c7c289ffee94e0e0b1406600bb0bb6bb6a7995c27557f4e22cf7c37dd909; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:31:15.856Z.