LAX93LA124 · Bertone CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
Bertone CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER · Accident: loss of control in flight
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA124
- 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
Bertone CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
- Aircraft type
- Bertone CHALLENGER
- 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
- N4391V
- Operator
- Frank D. Graham · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Unknown
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(drugs)
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment(other cardiovascular)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD CALLED ANOTHER PILOT ON THE RADIO AND SAID THAT HE WAS 5 MI SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT AND RETURNING TO LAND. WHEN THE PILOT DID NOT RETURN, THE OTHER PILOT TOOK OFF TO SEARCH FOR THE PILOT. THE AIRPLANE WAS LOCATED 3 MI SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE TERRAIN NOSE FIRST AT A 40-45 DEG ANGLE. THE PROPELLER APPEARED NOT TO HAVE BEEN TURNING AT IMPACT. AN EXAM OF THE ENGINE FOUND NO MECHANICAL DISCREPANCIES. TOXICOLOGICAL RESULTS WERE POSITIVE: BLOOD SCREEN - 1026 NG/ML DIAZEPAM, 1142 NG/ML NORDIAZEPAM; URINE SCREEN - METHAMPHETAMINE, AMPHETAMINE, OXAZEPAM, TEMAZEPAM, AND NORDIAZEPAM IDENTIFIED. THE LEVEL OF DIAZEPAM WOULD INDICATE THAT THE PILOT WAS TAKING THE TRANQUILIZER VALIUM AT A LEVEL OF AT LEAST TWICE THE NORMAL THERAPEUTIC CONCENTRATION. IN ADDITION, THE AUTOPSY REVEALED A SEVERE OCCLUSION OF THE LEFT ANTERIOR DESCENDING ARTERY, AT ITS ORIGIN. THE DEGREE OF OCCLUSION WAS SUFFICIENT TO HAVE CAUSED ARRHYTHMIA, INFARCT OR EVEN DEATH AT ANY TIME.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S LOSS OF AIRPLANE CONTROL DUE TO PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT AS A RESULT OF EITHER DRUGS OR OTHER CARDIOVASCULAR REASONS, OR BOTH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA124
- Event ID
- 20001211X11847
- Case number
- LAX93LA124
- 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: 54bc198a4e2b2ae4c3c4efa6cb959d8891659d3a15bdbd71af498825661bd1b3; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:42:16.600Z.