LAX92FA120 · Piper PA-31T-II
Andrew & Williamson Sales Piper PA-31T-II · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM) to Big Bear City Airport (L35)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA120
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31T-II
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N60AW
- Operator
- Andrew & Williamson Sales
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM), San Diego, CATo Big Bear City Airport (L35), Big Bear City, 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
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOTS HAD ENTERED INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE 5 PAX TO FLY THEM TO A SKI RESORT. THE AIRPLANE OWNER STATED THAT THE PIC, WHO WAS THE COMPANY PILOT, DID NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO USE THE AIRPLANE, NOR DID THE OWNER KNOW THE PAX. THE AIRPORT AT THE SKI RESORT IS LOCATED IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT 6,750 FT MSL. THERE IS NO INSTRUMENT APPROACH. THERE IS NO RECORD OF ANY WEATHER BRIEFINGS. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN AT ABOUT 6,580 FT MSL APRX 7.5 MI SW OF THE DESTINATION AIRPORT. WEATHER FOR THE AREA WAS: MOUNTAINS LOCALLY OBSCURED 3000 TO 5000 FEET SCATTERED TO BROKEN WITH TOPS TO 9000, AND WIDELY SCATTERED VISIBILITIES BELOW 3 MILES WITH SNOW AND RAIN SHOWERS. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE AND IMPACT SITE REVEALED THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH THE BRUSH AND SNOW COVERED 45 DEG SLOPE IN A LEVEL LEFT TURN.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POOR JUDGEMENT IN CONTINUING VISUAL FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS, IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN OBSCURED BY CLOUDS. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A PREFLIGHT WEATHER BRIEFING, THE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND THE HIGH MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA120
- Event ID
- 20001211X14120
- Case number
- LAX92FA120
- 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 1992-02-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8bbbdb8d832989ab109748f610f267129ccea58eeeea20a93f25baa376043194; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:21:55.724Z.