LAX96LA134 · Cessna 172L
Cessna 172L and Cessna 172M · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA134
- 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 · Cessna 172L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N7668G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Petaluma Municipal Airport (O69), Petaluma, CATo Napa County Airport (APC)
- 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 · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 · Cessna 172M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N20858
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Napa County Airport (APC)To Ukiah Municipal Airport (UKI), Ukiah, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › VFR procedures, not followed
- 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 pilot of the Cessna 172L, N7668G, was cleared to enter right traffic. He had been instructed to report entering downwind and to watch for other aircraft in the pattern. When he did not report entering downwind as requested, the tower operator saw the collision course and told him to turn downwind, advising him of the traffic. At the same time he was preparing to turn downwind he saw another aircraft already in the pattern. He immediately initiated a turn to avoid a collision; however, a few seconds later he felt a bang on the tail of the aircraft. The pilot of the Cessna 172M, N20858, had been on downwind when he saw the other aircraft approaching from his left. He turned and dove his aircraft to avoid a collision, but within a few seconds felt a bump. After the collision both aircraft landed without incident. Neither pilot reported seeing the other until they were within a few hundred feet of each other.
Probable cause
the failure of both pilots to see and avoid the other aircraft, and the failure of the pilot of the Cessna 172L, N7668G, to follow VFR procedures by not yielding the right of way to the Cessna 172M, N20858, which was already established in the traffic pattern.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA134
- Event ID
- 20001208X05427
- Case number
- LAX96LA134
- 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: a27f161bac5173a0d1f12ea9f90fbc553f7d32a4926fa104ec43fff2bc369fed; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:44:40.798Z.