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LAX96LA193 · Stinson 108-3

12 May 1996 · Compton, CA, United States

Stinson 108-3 and Revell MIDGET MUSTANG MIDGET MUS · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing

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Event

NTSB case
LAX96LA193
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 · Stinson 108-3

Aircraft type
Stinson 108
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
N235DE
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM)To 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 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
Taxi · to runway
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
Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Minor

Aircraft 2 · Revell MIDGET MUSTANG MIDGET MUS

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
N6WR
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM)To 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 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
Taxi · to runway
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
Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
  • Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

Both pilots reported that each was taxiing his aircraft eastbound on the south taxiway toward the run-up area. The Stinson pilot stated that he could not see the Midget Mustang ahead of him because it is a small aircraft and his aircraft is a conventional gear airplane with a large nose area. The Stinson pilot said he overtook the Midget Mustang from the rear and his propeller chewed into the tail, fuselage, and wings of the other aircraft. The Stinson pilot stated that his ability to perform clearing turns was limited due to the narrowness of the taxiway and the proximity of parked aircraft on the north side.

Probable cause

The failure of the pilot to see and avoid the other aircraft. A factor in the accident was the narrow, confined nature of the taxiway, which restricted the pilot's ability to perform clearing turns while taxiing.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX96LA193
Event ID
20001208X05808
Case number
LAX96LA193
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: dc655e700a625bbf01abfb6856c0facb8cbd20a5653f467ad09030bf8f7615a9; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:30:28.450Z.