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LAX95FA157 · Piper PA-28R-180

8 Apr 1995 · POLLACK PINES, CA, United States

S & S Flight Center Piper PA-28R-180 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Bakersfield International Airport (L45) to Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX95FA157
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-28R-180

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
N3904T
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Bakersfield International Airport (L45), Bakersfield, CATo Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL), SO. LAKE TAHOE, 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 encounter with weather
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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
  • Pilot in command › Hazardous weather advisory, disregarded
  • Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, misjudged

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

NTSB narrative

THERE WAS NO RECORD THAT THE PILOT RECEIVED A PREFLIGHT WEATHER BRIEFING FROM THE FAA OR NWS SYSTEMS. THE PILOT TOLD THE OPERATOR HE CHANGED HIS DESTINATION DUE TO HIGH WINDS TO AN AREA WITH BETTER WEATHER. THE PILOT CHANGED HIS DESTINATION A SECOND TIME WITHOUT TELLING THE OPERATOR TO AN AIRPORT THAT WOULD REQUIRE CROSSING THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. HIGH WINDS WERE ALSO FORECASTED FOR THE MOUNTAINS. A CENTER WEATHER WATCH WAS BROADCASTED BY APPROACH CONTROL, WHILE THE PILOT WAS ON THE FREQUENCY, FORECASTING MODERATE AND OCCASIONAL SEVERE TURBULENCE, STRONG UP-AND-DOWN DRAFTS, LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR, AND WIND GUSTS UP TO 45 KNOTS. THE CLOSEST WEATHER OBSERVATION STATION WAS UPWIND OF THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE STATION HAD TAKEN SIX SPECIAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS IN ADDITION TO TWO SCHEDULED OBSERVATIONS DUE TO CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED DESCENDING UNCONTROLLED WITHOUT THE TAIL BY NUMEROUS WITNESSES. ICE WAS OBSERVED ON THE WINGS, IN AN INDUCTION HOSE, AND THE RAM AIR PORT OF THE PITOT STATIC SYSTEM AFTER THE ACCIDENT.

Probable cause

The pilot's disregard of a hazardous weather advisory; his decision to fly into known adverse weather conditions; his failure to maintain control of the airplane with an accumulation of airframe ice; and his improper use of the flight controls during recovery from the inflight upset exceeding the airplane's stress limits. The adverse weather and airframe ice were factors in the accident.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX95FA157
Event ID
20001207X03306
Case number
LAX95FA157
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: d00f1d66160057ef99330c36fdd23a90bbd816c9c1e0b5b603d885cb6e33a164; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:49:51.570Z.