LAX92FA090 · Cessna 425
Cessna 425 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to TOR · Torrance, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA090
- 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
- 7 · 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 425
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 425
- 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
- N425BN
- Operator
- George N. Derenia · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo TOR · Torrance, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
NO RECORD COULD BE FOUND SHOWING THE PILOT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. UNFAVORABLE WEATHER WAS IN THE VICINITY. SEVERAL TIMES THE PILOT HAD DIFFICULTIES UNDERSTANDING AND COMPLYING WITH INSTRUCTIONS FROM CLEARANCE DELIVERY, GROUND CONTROL, AND DEPARTURE CONTROL. AFTER TAKEOFF THE PILOT REQUESTED AND RECEIVED AN IFR CLEARANCE. DURING THE LAST FIVE MINUTES OF FLIGHT RADAR RETURNS SHOWED THE AIRPLANE CHANGING HEADING FROM 45 DEGREES TO AS MUCH AS 180 DEGREES ABOUT 10 TIMES AND DESCENDING OR ASCENDING SEVERAL TIMES FROM ALTITUDES RANGING FROM 4,500 FEET MSL TO 11,500 FEET MSL. THE ALTITUDE AND HEADING CHANGES WERE NOT DIRECTED BY CONTROLLERS. ABOUT 3 MINUTES BEFORE THE ACCIDENT DEPARTURE CONTROL ASKED THE PILOT IF HE HAD A PROBLEM. THE PILOT INDICATED THAT HE DID AND 'WE'RE TRYING TO GET STRAIGHT.' ONE MINUTE LATER, THE PILOT SAID 'WE'RE ALL RIGHT.' SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, RADAR DATA SHOWED A LOSS OF CONTROL. RADAR AND COMMUNICATIONS WERE LOST AND AN ON GROUND EXPLOSION WAS OBSERVED AS THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. AN FAA FLIGHT SURGEON REVIEWED THE PILOT'S MEDICAL RECORDS. WITHIN ONE YEAR OF THE ACCIDENT THE PILOT HAD 3 PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND WAS TAKING 3 SEPARATE PRESCRIPTIONS WHICH WOULD HAVE PREVENTED HIM FROM BEING MEDICALLY QUALIFIED TO PILOT AN AIRCRAFT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL DUE TO SPATIAL DISORIENTATION. FACTORS IN THIS ACCIDENT WERE: 1) THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A PREFLIGHT WEATHER BRIEFING AND TO PROPERLY EVALUATE THE EXISTING WEATHER CONDITIONS PRIOR TO FLIGHT, AND 2) REPORTED UNFAVORABLE WEATHER CONDITIONS, INCLUDING TURBULENCE, SNOW, RAIN, AND OBSCURATION AT FLIGHT ALTITUDES ALONG THE PILOT'S ROUTE OF FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA090
- Event ID
- 20001211X13998
- Case number
- LAX92FA090
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-01-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b0264a4302613d2127016fdd208fff03144b5fe2bb942425d653194ba67b738f; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:24:45.708Z.