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LAX93FA118 · Beech E33

15 Feb 1993 · Avalon, CA, United States

Beech E33 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering

From Long Beach International Airport (LGB) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX93FA118
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
1 · 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

Beech E33

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 33
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
N7882R
Operator
Edmond C. Long · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, CATo 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
Maneuvering
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 › Aerobatics, performed
  • Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
  • Pilot in command › Judgment, poor

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

NTSB narrative

A WITNESS SAID THAT HE HEARD THE ENGINE 'REVVING AND PULLING UP REAL HARD.' HE RAN OUT ON HIS PORCH AND OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE 'GOING STRAIGHT UP AND DID A LOOP.' THE AIRPLANE CAME BACK DOWN, AND AGAIN WENT STRAIGHT UP IN THE SKY. HE NOTICED THAT THE LANDING LIGHTS 'HIT THE CLOUD DECK.' ANOTHER WITNESS STATED THAT HE COULD SEE THE SILHOUETTES OF ALL THE MOUNTAIN TOPS IN THE AREA BY NATURAL LIGHT. THE PILOT DID NOT HAVE A CURRENT MEDICAL OR BIENNIAL FLIGHT REVIEW. THE PILOT'S TOXICOLOGICAL RESULTS WERE POSITIVE; 73 MG/DL OF ETHANOL DETECTED IN THE LIVER, AND 180 MG/DL OF ETHANOL DETECTED IN THE KIDNEY. A BROKEN 1/2 GAL PLASTIC BOTTLE OF WHISKEY WAS FOUND IN THE MAIN WRECKAGE. THE PILOT'S DRIVER'S LICENSE HAD BEEN SUSPENDED TWICE IN 1992 FOR EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL LEVELS.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S ALCOHOLIC IMPAIRMENT OF EFFICIENCY AND JUDGEMENT WHICH RESULTED IN HIS ATTEMPT TO PERFORM AEROBATICS AT NIGHT IN HILLY TERRAIN AT AN ALTITUDE INADEQUATE FOR TERRAIN CLEARANCE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX93FA118
Event ID
20001211X11835
Case number
LAX93FA118
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 1993-02-16.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 548588947b0be6b3d4282ec169e5e70ec3ad98a966a5eeff43315bf503ba075d; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:42:21.017Z.