LAX94LA023 · Cessna 172
Sunrise Aviation Cessna 172 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA023
- 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
Cessna 172
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N96353
- Operator
- Sunrise Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Weather condition › Crosswind
- Weather condition › Windshear
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Murrieta, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AND THE DUAL STUDENT HAD MADE THREE PREVIOUS TOUCH AND GO LANDINGS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE CFI STATED THAT THE DUAL STUDENT HAD CONFIGURED THE AIRCRAFT FOR A SHORT FIELD LANDING USING 30 DEGREES OF FLAPS AND APPROXIMATELY 60 KNOTS AIRSPEED. THE CFI STATED AS THEY APPROACHED THE THRESHOLD THE AIRPLANE DROPPED ABRUPTLY. THE DUAL STUDENT ADDED FULL POWER TO GO AROUND, BUT THE AIRCRAFT CONTINUED TO SINK. THE CFI SAID THEY ENCOUNTERED AN UNEXPECTED CROSSWIND AND THEY ATTEMPTED TO CORRECT BY DROPPING THE RIGHT WING AND BY KEEPING THE NOSE ALIGNED WITH THE RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE HIT A RIDGELINE PRIOR TO TOUCHDOWN ON THE RUNWAY. ACCORDING TO THE FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR, THIS PARTICULAR AIRPORT IN NOTORIOUS FOR HAVING WIND SHEER PROBLEMS DUE TO THE PROXIMITY TO MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Probable cause
THE UNEXPECTED WINDSHEER THAT WAS ENCOUNTERED ON FINAL APPROACH. THE SURROUNDING MOUNTAIN/HILLY TERRAIN WAS A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA023
- Event ID
- 20001211X13598
- Case number
- LAX94LA023
- 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: 6306b0fb25ee025058b1b43f03943e6f80cb12e77afced012e31026e744dfefc; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:31:07.686Z.