LAX92LA182 · Piper PA-22-150
Piper PA-22-150 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Oxnard Airport (OXR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA182
- 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-22-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N6907D
- Operator
- Weilbacher, Christopher J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oxnard Airport (OXR)To 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ONE AIRPORT SECURITY GUARD OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE DURING TAKEOFF BOUNCE THREE TIMES, THEN VEER RIGHT. HE OBSERVED SPARKS EMITTING FROM THE AIRPLANE DURING THE LAST BOUNCE. ANOTHER SECURITY GUARD, WHO WAS WORKING THE AIRPORT'S EAST GATE AT ABOUT 0300 HRS, STATED THAT SHE STOPPED TWO MEN THAT WERE RUNNING ACROSS THE AIRPORT. SHE IDENTIFIED THEM AS THE PILOT/OWNER AND THE PASSENGER. SHE DETECTED AN ODOR OF ALCOHOL ON BOTH MEN. THE PILOT TOLD THE GUARD THAT HE AND HIS FRIEND HAD BEEN DRINKING ON THE NEARBY BEACH AND WERE RETURNING TO THEIR MOTOR HOME PARKED IN THE VICINITY OF THE AIRPORT. THE GUARD OBSERVED A RADIO TRANSCEIVER IN A BAG THEY WERE CARRYING. THE AIRPLANE'S WRECKAGE WAS FOUND BESIDE THE RUNWAY. THE NOSE WHEEL ASSEMBLY WAS BUCKLED REARWARD WHICH WOULD ALLOW THE PROPELLER AND NOSE OF THE AIRPLANE TO STRIKE THE RUNWAY. THE TIPS OF THE PROPELLER BLADES WERE GROUND OFF.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE DURING TAKEOFF AS A RESULT OF HIS ALCOHOLIC IMPAIRMENT OF EFFICIENCY AND JUDGEMENT. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE DARK NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA182
- Event ID
- 20001211X14461
- Case number
- LAX92LA182
- 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: 24533b8d859f4ba448a9c5afa3ad4085ec091f4199eed25deb4d5944d9cacbdc; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:13:14.019Z.