LAX93LA342 · Piper PA-24-250
Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA342
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-24-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N5523P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 object
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Weather condition › Windshear
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPORT IS LOCATED IN A BOWL SHAPED DEPRESSION AND IS SURROUNDED BY TREES ON ALL SIDES. THE PILOT SAID THAT HE WAS ON SHORT FINAL APPROACH WHEN THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE AND A DOWNDRAFT. THE PILOT SAID THAT EVEN WITH THE APPLICATION OF FULL POWER HE WAS UNABLE TO ARREST THE DESCENT PRIOR TO THE LANDING GEAR COLLIDING WITH THE AIRPORT BOUNDARY FENCE. THE AIRCRAFT OWNER WAS ON BOARD AS A PASSENGER. THE OWNER AND THE SECOND PASSENGER STATED THAT ON FINAL APPROACH THE AIR WAS VERY TURBULENT, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED BELOW THE TOPS OF THE TREES WHICH SURROUND THE AIRPORT. THE AIRCRAFT OWNER STATED THAT HE THOUGHT THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED A LOW LEVEL WINDSHEAR CAUSED BY THE TREES. THE CLOSEST OFFICIAL WEATHER REPORTING STATION IS LOCATED 49 MILES NORTH WEST OF THE AIRPORT. AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, THE STATION WAS REPORTING WINDS FROM 240 DEGREES AT 18 KNOTS, WITH GUSTS TO 27 KNOTS.
Probable cause
THE AIRCRAFT'S ENCOUNTER WITH A LOW LEVEL WINDSHEAR AND THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR THE EXISTING WIND CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA342
- Event ID
- 20001211X13419
- Case number
- LAX93LA342
- 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: b7d893679563656df9c8b90ce75f3b89082142f91df863e534a2fd18e9a04d2e; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:40:11.478Z.