LAX92FA356 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From O04 · Carson City, NV to Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA356
- 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
Piper PA-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N2406J
- Operator
- Union Flights
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From O04 · Carson City, NVTo Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), Sacramento, 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REFUELED THE PIPER CUB AND TOOK OFF WITHOUT MISHAP. THE PILOT WAS ENGAGED IN PATROLLING PIPELINES, AND DURING THIS PORTION OF THE WESTBOUND ROUTE OVER 8,000 FOOT MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN HE WAS POSITIONING THE AIRPLANE BETWEEN SEGMENTS. THERE WERE NO WITNESSES TO THE CRASH AND THE PILOT DID NOT ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH ATC. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED ABOUT 9 MILES WEST OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. THE AIRPLANE WAS FOUND IN A NEAR VERTICAL ATTITUDE, HEADING EAST, AND WITH ITS ENGINE ABOUT 4 FEET BENEATH GROUND LEVEL. EXAM OF THE AIRFRAME AND ENGINE REVEALED CONTINUITY OF THE FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM, FUEL IN THE ENGINE AND NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURES. MEDICAL RECORDS INDICATED THE PILOT HAD EXPERIENCED A PAIN IN HIS CHEST. FAMILY MEMBERS REPORTED THAT THE PILOT HAD RECENTLY EXPERIENCED CHEST PAINS WHICH WERE SEVERE ENOUGH TO RESULT IN THE PILOT INTERRUPTING HIS ACTIVITY. DURING THE AUTOPSY THE PATHOLOGIST PERFORMED A MICROSCOPIC EXAM OF THE HEART AND FOUND NUCLEAR PLEOMORPHISM AND HYPERCHROMATISM. NO ACUTE CHANGES WERE PRESENT.
Probable cause
WAS THE PILOT'S IN FLIGHT LOSS OF AIRPLANE CONTROL DUE TO PHYSICAL INCAPACITATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA356
- Event ID
- 20001211X15429
- Case number
- LAX92FA356
- 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: 0c96902c7ce8b280914daf23b7aceb7699bfc8c0d530cbe92c80059fe4c6cc41; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:59:32.562Z.