LAX95LA042 · Grumman AA5
Grumman AA5 and Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA042
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Grumman AA5
- Aircraft type
- Grumman AA5
- 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
- N6353L
- Operator
- Jeffery Lee Jacobs
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
Aircraft 2 · Great Lakes 2T-1A-2
- Aircraft type
- Great Lakes 2
- 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
- N3537L
- Operator
- Joe P. Lansden · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 › Radio communications, not performed
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Radio communications, not performed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF N6353L WAS ON AN EXTENDED FINAL APPROACH AND HAD REPORTED NUMBER THREE TO LAND. HE HAD CROSSED THE FIELD BOUNDARY WHEN HE HEARD A PILOT CALL 'SHORT FINAL' AND THEN SAW ANOTHER AIRCRAFT, N3537L. BEFORE HE COULD REACT, THE TWO AIRCRAFT COLLIDED. THE PILOT OF N3537L HAD REPORTED TURNING FINAL WHEN HE FELT HIS AIRCRAFT 'CATCH A WIRE.' AFTER THE COLLISION, THE PILOT OF N6353L CONTINUED THE APPROACH TO THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT OF N3537L STATED THAT HIS AIRCRAFT FLIGHT CONTROLS BECAME UNRESPONSIVE AND THAT HIS AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER AND STRUCK THE RUNWAY. AFTER COMING TO REST, A FIRE BROKE OUT IN N3537L'S ENGINE COMPARTMENT. BOTH AIRCRAFT WERE USING THE SANTA PAULA 122.9 CTAF VHF FREQUENCY. THE PILOT OF N3537L REPORTED HEARING THE TRANSMISSIONS OF OTHER TRAFFIC, BUT STATED THAT HE DID HEAR N6353L'S RADIO CALL. A GROUND WITNESS MONITORING THE FREQUENCY HEARD N3537L MAKE SEVERAL TRANSMISSIONS, BUT DID NOT HEAR N6353L MAKE ANY. THERE WERE SEVERAL OTHER AIRCRAFT ON FREQUENCY AT THE TIME.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilots to maintain an adequate visual lookout for other aircraft in the traffic pattern, and the pilot's failure to effectively use the CTAF for position reports while in the pattern.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA042
- Event ID
- 20001206X02741
- Case number
- LAX95LA042
- 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: af74a127c8be1a1751f088da6c7d6836c7ab9790de6da6fc9f0d7bca0e717d4a; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:25:41.799Z.