LAX96LA146 · Luckett FLYBABY 1A
Luckett FLYBABY 1A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Meadows Field (BFL) to Chino Airport (CNO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA146
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Luckett FLYBABY 1A
- Aircraft type
- Luckett FLYBABY 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
- N71658
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Meadows Field (BFL), Bakersfield, CATo Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
The accident site was in a pass at the southern end of a mountain valley. A major interstate highway traversed the mountains through this valley. The pass at the southern end of the valley was characterized by rapidly rising and narrowing terrain. U.S. Forest Service workers near the site reported that the pass and the surrounding terrain was obscured by clouds which went to the ground. The aircraft collided with the side of a mountain about 300 feet above the elevation of the highway. An FAA inspector went to the accident site, interviewed witnesses, and examined the aircraft. He reported that the aircraft was traveling southbound over the highway as it approached the pass. The aircraft collided with the terrain as the pilot attempted to turn around in the narrow pass. Control system continuity could not be established throughout the aircraft due to extensive airframe crush deformation. Fuel was present in the tank and no discrepancies were found in the engine.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper in-flight planning/decision. The terrain condition and low ceiling were related factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA146
- Event ID
- 20001208X05437
- Case number
- LAX96LA146
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1996-03-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9ffe758bd8739a045672b13e2641fef2f8ff398c6b21f48c0d4ffacce06be858; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:50:25.291Z.