LAX92FA367 · Cessna 182Q
Buttonwillow Flying Service Cessna 182Q and Santa Paula Flight Center Cessna 150 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA367
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 182Q
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N96829
- Operator
- Buttonwillow Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elk Hills Buttonwillow Airport (L62), Buttonwillow, 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 150
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N63437
- Operator
- Santa Paula Flight Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CFI AND HIS STUDENT IN A C-150 WERE PRACTICING TOUCH AND GO'S AND ANNOUNCING THEIR INTENTIONS ON CTAF 122.9, WHICH THEY HAD BEEN MONITORING. THE CFI SAID HE OBSERVED NO TRAFFIC AHEAD IN THE PATTERN AND HE SCANNED FOR TRAFFIC THROUGHOUT THE PATTERN AND DID NOT SEE ANYTHING. HE SAID HE ALSO ANNOUNCED THE TURN TO BASE OVER THE CTAF. THE CFI STATED 'FROM THIS POINT I TRANSFERRED MY ATTENTION BETWEEN MY STUDENT AND THE APPROACH AND LANDING STAGE OF THE FLIGHT.' HE SAID AS WE TURNED FINAL WE 'CLIPPED' ANOTHER ACFT. THE CFI STATED THAT HE WAS AT THE CONTROLS AT THE TIME OF THE COLLISION. WITNESSES STATED THAT THE ACFT C-182, WAS OBSERVED FLYING UPWIND AGAINST THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AT AN ALT HIGHER THAN THE PATTERN. THE AIRCRAFT THEN CROSSED THE END OF RWY 22 AND ENTERED A HIGH RT DOWNWIND, THEN TURNED A HIGH LONG FINAL FOR RWY 22. AT THE SAME TIME THEY NOTICED THE C-150 ON A LEFT BASE LEG THEN THE COLLISION. THE PREVIOUS CTAF OF 122.7 HAD RECENTLY BEEN CHANGED TO 122.9 CTAF. THE STANDARD TRAFFIC PATTERN FOR RWY 22 IS LT HAND.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF BOTH PILOTS TO SEE AND AVOID EACH OTHER. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE AZIMUTH OF THE SETTING SUN AND THE CESSNA 182 PILOTS NON STANDARD FLIGHT PATTERN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA367
- Event ID
- 20001211X15430
- Case number
- LAX92FA367
- 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 1992-08-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 049ece8f886b2ab2e7d99d961b4ed878cc6759660d251ff5ef6618d4e7ba907a; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:58:29.765Z.