LAX96FA108 · Piper PA-28-181
Airtime Aviation Piper PA-28-181 and Robin, Avions Pierre R.2160 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96FA108
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-28-181
- 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
- N791CR
- Operator
- Airtime Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ), Carlsbad, CATo L39
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Robin, Avions Pierre R.2160
- Aircraft type
- Robin Avions Pierre R-2160
- 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
- N216JM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, CATo L39
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilots of Piper PA-28, N791CR, and Avions Pierre Robin R.2160, N216JM, were approaching an uncontrolled airport to enter the traffic pattern and land. Before reaching the traffic pattern, both pilots heard other traffic on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF). As they were positioning themselves to enter a left traffic pattern at a 45-degree angle, a midair collision occurred. The PA-28 pilot said that before the collision, he made a radio transmission announcing his position and intentions to land on runway 27. Moments later, he saw a 'blue and white flash' to his right and below his right wing, then he felt an impact as the two airplanes collided. After the collision, the PA-28 pilot declared an emergency and continued to a landing on runway 27; he did not realize that the PA-28's right main gear had separated until the airplane touched down. The R.2160 pilot said that before the collision, he looked for another airplane that he heard on the CTAF, but did not see it. Moments later, his canopy 'blew off' as the airplanes collided, and the engine began to vibrate severely. The R.2160 pilot landed in an open field, but the airplane erupted in flames after touchdown and was destroyed. There was evidence that the PA-28's right main landing gear tire struck the R.2160's upper canopy, and that the R.2160's propeller struck the PA-28's nosegear tire, nosegear strut, and the underside of the cowling.
Probable cause
inadequate visual lookout by the pilots of both airplanes, which resulted in their failure to see and avoid each other.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96FA108
- Event ID
- 20001208X05272
- Case number
- LAX96FA108
- 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: 9788595b5cd9f2e9a425b70033417306206167c107144ca78828cbfe40f344a3; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:58:06.865Z.