LAX93LA199 · Canadair F-86E MK.6
Canadair F-86E MK.6 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From NZJ to NZJ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA199
- 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
Canadair F-86E MK.6
- Aircraft type
- Canadair F-86
- 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
- N3842J
- Operator
- James A. Gregory · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From NZJTo NZJ
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Santa Ana, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A PREPLANNED ROUTINE INVOLVING AN F-86 AND A MIG-15 HAD BEEN SCHEDULED FOR THE AIRSHOW. WHEN THE MIG-15 PILOT WAS UNABLE TO PARTICIPATE, THE F-86 PILOT ELECTED TO CONDUCT A SOLO AEROBATIC ROUTINE THAT HAD NOT BEEN PRACTICED FOR THE SHOW. AFTER TAKEOFF, HE BEGAN A LOOP WITH AN AILERON ROLL AT THE TOP OF THE MANEUVER. DURING DESCENT FROM THE TOP OF THE LOOP, THE AIRPLANE DEVELOPED A HIGH RATE OF DESCENT AND CONTACTED THE RUNWAY IN A NEAR NOSE AND WING LEVEL ATTITUDE. THE PILOT WAS NOT WEARING A 'G' SUIT, AND THE CALCULATED 'G'S' SUSTAINED DURING THE PULL-OUT (BEFORE IMPACT) WERE 6.4 G'S. NO SPECTATORS WERE INJURED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PLANNING/DECISION CONCERNING PERFORMANCE OF AN AEROBATIC MANEUVER, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ALTITUDE/CLEARANCE ABOVE THE RUNWAY DURING RECOVERY FROM THE MANEUVER. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE PILOT'S LOWER TOLERANCE TO 'G'S' (PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITION) BY NOT WEARING A 'G' SUIT (MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA199
- Event ID
- 20001211X12416
- Case number
- LAX93LA199
- 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: ebffda99e68b93212c2934b0b155df127d3fc76b6aef90084d734eb7c8335c36; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:34:35.550Z.