LAX95LA261 · Aero Commander S2R
Aero Commander S2R · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA261
- 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
- 0 · 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
Aero Commander S2R
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander S2
- 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
- N5609X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Diverted attention
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS CONDUCTING A NIGHT AERIAL APPLICATION FLIGHT, AND HAD JUST TAKEN OFF TO START ON A NEW FIELD (AT ABOUT 0500 PDT). HE REPORTED THAT THE GROUND FLAGGERS WERE NOT IN THE PROPER POSITION WHEN HE MADE THE INITIAL PASS. THE PILOT SAID HE PULLED UP AND REACHED DOWN TO GET HIS MAP TO VERIFY THE FLAGGERS' PROPER POSITION, AND TURNED ON THE INTERIOR LIGHTING TO READ THE MAP. AFTER READING THE MAP, HE REACHED FOR THE INTERIOR LIGHTING SWITCH. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE GROUND. TOXICOLOGY TESTS OF THE PILOT'S URINE INDICATED AN UNQUANTIFIED LEVEL OF VALIUM AND A PAIN MEDICATION (OPIATE POSITIVE). THE PILOT STATED THAT HE TOOK A PAIN PILL BEFORE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL (EMERGENCY ROOM), AND THAT HE HAD TAKEN 1/2 OF A 5 MILLIGRAM (MG) VALIUM TABLET AT ABOUT NOON ON THE PREVIOUS DAY SO HE COULD GET SOME SLEEP BEFORE REPORTING FOR WORK AT 2100 HOURS. VALIUM IS AN ANTIANXIETY AGENT AND MUSCLE RELAXANT, NOT APPROVED FOR USE WHILE FLYING. PHARMACY RECORDS SHOWED THAT ON 5/26/95, THE PILOT HAD PRESCRIPTIONS FILLED FOR 90 VALIUM TABLETS AND 90 TYLENOL/CODEINE TABLETS.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE ABOVE THE GROUND AFTER DIVERTING HIS ATTENTION TO READ A MAP. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, WHICH REDUCED THE PILOT'S VISUAL CUES CONCERNING OUTSIDE REFERENCES WHILE READING THE MAP; AND THE PILOT'S USE OF A DRUG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA261
- Event ID
- 20001207X04008
- Case number
- LAX95LA261
- 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: d26c43e249b9186e46db69a4630ad952aad407700cd2c377887fc5baa7c16095; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:09:18.842Z.