LAX97FA070 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97FA070
- 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
- 4 · 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
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N2377T
- Operator
- Jay Arcemont
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall/spin
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot advised she was experiencing moderate to severe turbulence and was unable to maintain altitude. She requested the nearest airport and was given a heading and distance to Apple Valley. After she reported that her door popped open, radio and radar contact were lost. A witness reported that the aircraft was in level flight and then abruptly rolled to the right, pitched forward, and continued in a nose down attitude until it exploded into a towering, red fireball. The POH states that should the door open in flight, the pilot should slow the airspeed to reduce buffeting and then land at the nearest airport. It also states that should rough air be encountered, the pilot should slow the aircraft to maneuvering speed or slightly less, fly attitude, and avoid abrupt maneuvers. Weather forecasts were for moderate to severe turbulence, strong winds, scattered to broken clouds, and rain and icing conditions.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed after encountering turbulence, low level wind shear, and an open door.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97FA070
- Event ID
- 20001208X07186
- Case number
- LAX97FA070
- 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: 368f227e7aa25c0ae28591b81dde5538ab5e1e0922150499e9d1a68ac6592830; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:04:48.530Z.