LAX92FA172 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Yuba County Airport (MYV) to Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA172
- 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
- 2 · 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-28R-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2968R
- Operator
- Neil W. Clark · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yuba County Airport (MYV), Marysville, CATo Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH), MAMMOTH, 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING DURING WHICH HE WAS INFORMED THAT MODERATE TURBULENCE MAY BE ENCOUNTERED ALONG THE ROUTE. THE PILOT FILED AN INSTRUMENT FLIGHT PLAN, RECEIVED HIS CLEARANCE AND TOOK OFF WITHOUT MISHAP. NO COMMUNICATION OR NAVIGATION DIFFICULITIES WERE REPORTED DURING THE AIRPLANE'S CLIMB TO 11,000 FEET. WHILE EN ROUTE, THE PILOT LIKELY ENCOUNTERED THE FORECAST TURBULENCE. THE RADAR TRACK PLOT SHOWS THE AIRPLANE INITIALLY ON COURSE. AFTER SEVERAL MINUTES, THE AIRPLANE ENTERED A RIGHT SPIRAL DESCENDING TURN. AT 19:35:58 THE AIRPLANE WAS AT 11,100 FEET. AT 19:36:53 THE AIRPLANE WAS AT 3,100 FEET AND HAD COMPLETED AT LEAST ONE 360 DEGREE TURN. PORTIONS OF THE AIRPLANE'S RIGHT WING AND STABILATOR ASSEMBLY WERE FOUND ABOUT ONE MILE FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE. NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND OF THE PILOT HAVING RECENTLY COMPLETED A BFR. DURING THE PREVIOUS YEAR HE HAD LOGGED ABOUT 6.9 INSTRUMENT HOURS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AND HIS IMPROPER USE OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS WHICH ENDURED AIRFRAME LOADS THAT EXCEEDED THE AIRCRAFT'S DESIGN STRESS LIMITS. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT RELATED TO THE PILOT'S ENCOUNTER WITH TURBULENCE, AND TO HIS LACK OF RECENT INSTRUMENT FLYING EXPERIENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA172
- Event ID
- 20001211X14442
- Case number
- LAX92FA172
- 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 1992-04-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8e0bc300beaf5034260f3e61da2d3e4ec4542410ddc6bac220f56d266ed89910; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:15:53.668Z.