LAX92LA386 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB) to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA386
- 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
- 1 · 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
Beech A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N583T
- Operator
- Robert O. Gibbel · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB), Paso Robles, CATo Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, 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, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
FLIGHT WAS RECEIVING VFR FLIGHT FOLLOWING THRU THE LOS ANGELES TCA. AT ABOUT 1620, FLIGHT WAS HANDED OFF TO ANOTHER SECTOR CONTROLLER AND GIVEN A FREQ CHANGE. THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED. HE DID NOT CONTACT THE NEW SECTOR CONTROLLER, AND NO FURTHER RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WERE NOTED. RECORDED RADAR DATA SHOWS THAT THE AIRCRAFT MAINTAINED A STRAIGHT GROUND TRACK AT 5,500 FT DURING THE HANDOFF AND FREQ CHANGE ASSIGNMENT. AT 1622:37, THE ALTITUDE CHANGED TO 5,300 FT. DURING THE NEXT 18 SECONDS THE ALTITUDE DECREASED TO 3,100 FT AT AN AVERAGE RATE OF DESCENT OF ABOUT 7,000 FPM. THE LAST RECORDED RADAR POSITION IS OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN MID CHANNEL BETWEEN THE MAINLAND AND CATALINA ISLAND. THERE WERE NO KNOWN MAINTENANCE DISCREPANCIES AGAINST THE AIRCRAFT, AND THE AIRCRAFT IS ESTIMATED TO HAVE HAD ABOUT 34 GALS OF FUEL ON BOARD. THE PILOT HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN AN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT 1 WEEK EARLIER; HE HAD REPORTEDLY FELL ASLEEP WHILE DRIVING. HE ALSO REPORTEDLY HAD 'VERY BAD BRUISES ON HIS BODY IN THE AREA OF THE SEAT BELT AND SHOULDER HARNESS.'
Probable cause
A LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO PILOT INCAPACITATION FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON(S).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA386
- Event ID
- 20001211X14701
- Case number
- LAX92LA386
- 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: b86898cc36d15b8c1e7c31c132b1127c91925dfb100843ce0a2d33728bc04cac; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:13:33.335Z.