LAX95FA129 · Piper PA-23-150
Piper PA-23-150 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA) to Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95FA129
- 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
- 4 · 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-23-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N1260P
- Operator
- Anthony W. Shanks · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, CATo Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM), San Diego, 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT CALLED FSS AT 0309 AND REQUESTED A WEATHER BRIEFING FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO SANTA ANA ONLY. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED ABOUT 0530 AND FLEW TO SANTA ANA TO PICK UP TWO PASSENGERS. THE WEATHER WAS MARGINAL VFR CONDITIONS WITH LOW CEILINGS AND COASTAL MOUNTAINS OBSCURED BY CLOUDS AND RAIN. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED SNA AT 0921 VFR EN ROUTE TO SAN DIEGO AND MEXICO. THE FLIGHT ADVISED APPROACH THAT THEY WERE VFR CLIMBING TO 3,500 TO STAY BELOW THE CLOUD DECK. ABOUT 3 MINUTES LATER THE PILOT STATED 'GOING TO LEVEL OFF HERE.' RADAR INDICATED 1,300 FEET MSL. ABOUT 5 MINUTES LATER RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST. APPROACH ADVISED THE PILOT TO 'ATTEMPT CONTACT LONG RIFLE (USMC RESTRICTED AIRSPACE) ON 132.2', WHICH WAS THE WRONG FREQUENCY FOR THE RESTRICTED AIRSPACE. THE PILOT CALLED THE WRONG FREQUENCY TWICE AND WAS COVERED BY OTHER AIRCRAFT AT ANOTHER FACILITY. THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED ON THE USMC MILITARY RESERVATION ON A RIDGE AT ABOUT 1,475 FEET MSL.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INTENTIONAL VFR FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER. THE LOW CEILING WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95FA129
- Event ID
- 20001207X03132
- Case number
- LAX95FA129
- 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: e4b952b4d4ec4e6e9af0e023a2841dcf34392204bd2cc15bac72c4457d8f6b79; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:51:18.917Z.