LAX92FA271 · Holmes-Salley/Starduster TOO SA300
Holmes-Salley/Starduster TOO SA300 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Santa Paula Airport (SZP)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA271
- 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
- Unknown
Holmes-Salley/Starduster TOO SA300
- Aircraft type
- Holmes Salley/starduster Too SA300
- 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
- N27BP
- Operator
- Sammy Roth, Stacy Mamer
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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 › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD PURCHASED THE EXPERIMENTAL 'STARDUSTER TOO' SA 300 AIRPLANE ABOUT EIGHT DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. HE HAD ACCUMULATED ABOUT 15 HOURS IN THE AIRPLANE. THE PILOT AND A PILOT RATED PASSENGER DEPARTED AT 0831 HOURS UNDER A BROKEN TO OVERCAST CLOUD CONDITION TO AN AIRPORT ABOUT 30 MILES TO THE WEST FOR BREAKFAST. WITNESSES REPORTED SEEING THE AIRPLANE SPIRALING OR SPINNING OUT OF THE CLOUDS AND IMPACT MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. THE WITNESSES STATED THAT THE OVERCAST WAS ABOUT 100 TO 200 ABOVE THE TERRAIN AT THE 1900 FOOT MSL ACCIDENT SITE. PILOT REPORTS INDICATED THAT THE CLOUD TOPS WERE AROUND 3500 FEET MSL. THE WITNESSES ALSO STATED THAT THEY HEARD THE AIRPLANE FLYING BACK AND FORTH IN OR ABOVE THE CLOUDS JUST PRIOR TO SEEING IT SPIRALING OR SPINNING OUT OF THE CLOUDS. THE ELEVATOR TRIM TAB WAS LOCATED IN THE FULL TAB DOWN POSITION.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS AND AN INADVERTENT ENTRY INTO A STALL SPIN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN TYPE OF AIRCRAFT AND A LOW CLOUD COVER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA271
- Event ID
- 20001211X14891
- Case number
- LAX92FA271
- 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: 4b4b444b429dc49129a42ee7dfc359002a01b3090de8c01515151e2bc84ee0cf; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:04:28.494Z.