LAX95LA211 · Harmon DOLPHIN
Harmon DOLPHIN · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH) to Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA211
- 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
- 1 · 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
Harmon DOLPHIN
- Aircraft type
- Harmon DOLPHIN
- 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
- N89JH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH), Fresno, CATo Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB)
- 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
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE WAS ONE OF TWO AIRCRAFT THAT WERE FLYING TOGETHER TO PASO ROBLES MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. THE WEATHER AT THE AIRPORT WAS REPORTED AS A 600-FOOT CEILING WITH 3 MILES VISIBILITY IN FOG. THE PILOT OF THE SECOND AIRPLANE WAS IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT OF THE SECOND AIRPLANE, THE PILOT OF THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE HAD DESCENDED INTO THE TOP OF THE FOG. THE SECOND AIRPLANE PILOT ASKED THE ACCIDENT PILOT WHERE HE WAS. THE ACCIDENT PILOT STATED, 'I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM.' THERE WERE NO FURTHER RADIO TRANSMISSIONS HEARD FROM THE ACCIDENT PILOT. THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED ABOUT 1 MILE FROM THE AIRPORT. THE OUTBOARD 4 FEET OF THE LEFT WING WAS FOUND ABOUT 150 FEET FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE. AN EXAM OF THE WING FRACTURES REVEALED EVIDENCE THAT THE OUTBOARD PORTION OF THE WING HAD SEPARATED IN AN UPWARD AND AFT DIRECTION. THE PILOT WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DECISION CONTINUE VFR FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC), LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL DUE TO SPATIAL DISORIENTATION, AND EXCEEDING THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRPLANE. THE WEATHER CONDITION WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA211
- Event ID
- 20001207X03744
- Case number
- LAX95LA211
- 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: 3ae38e1d1ca185878388f4f0db66ca56b7e95bfaa9ed6f4897a3536ded8fad74; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:44:15.590Z.