LAX92FA201 · Piper PA-32-301
Piper PA-32-301 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Chino Airport (CNO) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA201
- 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
- 3 · 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-32-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N8408V
- Operator
- Hollis C. White · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, 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 · IFR missed approach
- 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
- 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 › Climb, not performed
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS EXECUTING HIS THIRD VOR RWY 26 APCH FOLLOWING TWO EARLIER MISSED APPROACHES. INBOUND FROM THE FAF THE AIRPLANE SUDDENLY TURNED TO A SOUTHERLY DIRECTION, 90 DEG LEFT OF THE FINAL APCH COURSE, DESCENDING THRU 1,500 FT. AT AN ALTITUDE OF 1,000 FT THE PLT REPORTED EXECUTING A MISSED APPROACH, AND THE ALTITUDE CONTINUED TO DECREASE. THE CONTROLLER BROADCASTED A LOW ALTITUDE ALERT, AND THE PLT RESPONDED HE WAS CLIMBING. THE PLT TURNED LEFT TO AN EASTERLY DIRECTION, AND THE ALTITUDE HAD LOWERED TO 700 FT. THE PILOT WAS ADVISED HE WAS PROCEEDING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, AND THE CONTROLLER STATED '...I SUGGEST YOU AH REINTERCEPT THE VOR FINAL APPROACH COURSE IF ABLE.' THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE MOUNTAIN AT 900 FT MSL, 6 MI EAST OF THE AIRPORT. THE PLLT LIVED 1 MI FROM THE AIRPORT, AND RECEIVED HIS FLIGHT TRAINING FROM AIRPORTS LOCAL TO HIS RESIDENCE. THE PILOT HAD EARLIER TOLD HIS CFI THAT DURING A VOR APCH TO THE AIRPORT AT CIRCLING MINIMUMS HE COULD NOT LOCATE THE ARPT & ELECTED TO LOOK FOR THE ARPT RATHER THAN EXECUTE A MISSED APPROACH.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE PUBLISHED INSTRUMENT MISSED APPROACH PROCEDURE, AND HIS FAILURE TO INITIATE A TIMELY CLIMB AFTER BEING GIVEN A LOW ALTITUDE ALERT. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE CONTROLLER'S FAILURE TO TAKE POSITIVE ACTION WHEN DRASTIC MEASURES WERE REQUIRED, THE LOW CEILING, DARK NIGHT, AND SURROUNDING MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA201
- Event ID
- 20001211X14667
- Case number
- LAX92FA201
- 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 1992-05-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d0bfa17f5c12562fc39e42071b00f748c9f78c459912d3d397dbc05199df3cfd; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:12:54.758Z.