LAX95FA105 · Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Phoenix, AZ to Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95FA105
- 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
- 2 · 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
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N560LM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix, AZTo Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD)
- 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 · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Pilot in command › Became lost/disoriented, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, not followed
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT EXECUTED A MISSED APPROACH IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. A GROUND WITNESS BRIEFLY OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE PROCEEDING IN AN OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF THE FINAL APPROACH COURSE ON A FLIGHT PATH NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MISSED APPROACH. THE AIRPLANE ABRUPTLY ENTERED INTO A 90-DEGREE BANKING TURN AND DISAPPEARED INTO THE CLOUDS. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED IN A NEAR-VERTICAL DESCENT ATTITUDE MOMENTS LATER. THE PILOT'S LAST COMMUNICATIONS TO THE LOCAL CONTROLLER WERE UNINTELLIGIBLE. THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION SHOWED THAT THE MAIN LANDING GEARS WERE IN TRANSIT. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY AIRPLANE OR ENGINE PREEXISTING MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES.
Probable cause
the pilot inadvertently becoming lost/disoriented during a missed approach, his failure to follow the proper missed approach procedure, and his failure to maintain control of the aircraft due to spatial disorientation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95FA105
- Event ID
- 20001207X02977
- Case number
- LAX95FA105
- 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 1995-02-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7b5688e5dde4e832f6cf05dde237963f8fe3f8244fa8b29274d0d4ae12bf9a7b; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:52:12.680Z.