LAX93LA129 · Cessna 182R
Cessna 182R · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during an uncontrolled descent
From Calexico International Airport (CXL) to Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA129
- 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
Cessna 182R
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N5514N
- Operator
- Steven F. Gossard · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Calexico International Airport (CXL), Calexico, CATo Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PRIOR TO DEPARTURE, THE PILOT RECEIVED TWO WEATHER BRIEFINGS WHICH CONTAINED AN ADVISORY OF A CURRENT AIRMET AND SIGMET. THE SIGMET FORECAST OCCASIONALLY SEVERE TURBULENCE BELOW 15,000 FEET, WITH LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR POTENTIAL DUE TO A STRONG LOW LEVEL WESTERLY AIR FLOW. THE AIRMET ADVISED THAT MOUNTAIN OBSCUREMENT AND MODERATE TURBULENCE WERE POSSIBLE THROUGHOUT THE AREA BELOW 15,000 FEET. IN ADDITION, A PILOT REPORT WAS PASSED ALONG TO THE PILOT FROM A BOEING 737 WHICH HAD ENCOUNTERED MODERATE TURBULENCE IN THE VICINITY OF THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE PILOT FILED AN IFR FLIGHT PLAN AND DEPARTED ALONG A ROUTE OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT AN ASSIGNED ALTITUDE OF 8,000 FEET. THE FLIGHT ENCOUNTERED A STRONG DOWN DRAFT, WHICH THE PILOT SAID HE COULD NOT COUNTER DESPITE APPLYING FULL POWER AND MAINTAINING BEST ANGLE OF CLIMB AIRSPEED. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, THE DOWN DRAFT AT TIMES SHOWED A DESCENT RATE OF 1,500 FEET PER MINUTE ON THE VSI. THE FLIGHT ENTERED THE CLOUDS AT 6,000 FEET, AND, SHORTLY THEREAFTER, COLLIDED WITH TREES AND MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT ABOUT THE 5,500 FOOT LEVEL.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS DECISION TO ATTEMPT FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA129
- Event ID
- 20001211X11851
- Case number
- LAX93LA129
- 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: 35a442577fedabd309fb20a99b7e5f7e15338bf9f71b51758c5a99540f14a537; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:18:36.832Z.