LAX95LA190 · Stol UC-1
Stol UC-1 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water
From Saipan International Airport (PGSN) to Pagan Airstrip (TT01)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA190
- 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
- 3 · 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
Stol UC-1
- Aircraft type
- Stol UC-1
- 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
- N108CA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Saipan International Airport (PGSN)To Pagan Airstrip (TT01), PAGAN
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Saipan, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AMPHIBIAN AIRPLANE CRASHED AT SEA UNDER UNDETERMINED CIRCUMSTANCES ABOUT 35 MILES NORTH OF SAIPAN. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DESTROYED AND SANK. THE AIRCRAFT LEFT AT 0720 ON A FLIGHT TO AN UNINHABITED ISLAND 180 NAUTICAL MILES NORTH OF SAIPAN. AFTER DEPARTURE THERE WERE NO FURTHER RADIO COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE FLIGHT AND ANY FAA FACILITY, AND THERE WERE NO DISTRESS CALLS. BOTH OF THE PASSENGERS MADE CELLULAR PHONE CALLS TO THEIR FAMILIES AT 1100 AND 1130. THE PASSENGERS SAID THEY WERE 45 MILES FROM SAIPAN AND RETURNING BECAUSE OF BAD WEATHER AT PAGAN. THE PILOT WAS HIRED BY THE OWNER AS BOTH PILOT AND A MECHANIC FOR THE AIRCRAFT. NO RECORD WAS FOUND THAT THE PILOT HAD EVER BEEN ISSUED A SEAPLANE RATING FOR ANY AIRCRAFT CLASS OR OBTAINED SEAPLANE TRAINING AT ANY KNOWN FACILITY IN THE MARIANAS. WITNESSES SAID THE PILOT REPORTED A HISTORY OF FUEL PUMP AND GENERATOR PROBLEMS ON THE AIRCRAFT AND THAT THE PILOT CHANGED FUEL PUMPS BEFORE THE FLIGHT. THE RIGHT GENERATOR WAS INOPERATIVE FOR THE FLIGHT. NO AIRCRAFT OR SURFACE VESSEL ENGAGED IN THE SEARCH FOR THE AIRCRAFT REPORTED ENCOUNTERING ANY UNUSUAL WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
an inflight collision with the ocean for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA190
- Event ID
- 20001207X03493
- Case number
- LAX95LA190
- 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: b5e8b7f1f62e165e7a44f550ef97e2b3217702e20dd6ea56dadaeee86ddf9eba; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:46:17.283Z.