Wings Express Piper PA-32R-300 accident
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA124
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-32R-300
- 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
- N711PE
- Operator
- Wings Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZTo Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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 › Fatigue(lack of sleep)
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation
- Terrain condition › Mountainous/hilly
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Palm Springs, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED FOR WORK AT 0200 HOURS AND FLEW ON A LEG OF A CARGO FLIGHT FROM BURBANK, CA TO PHOENIX, AZ. HE WENT TO A COMPANY APARTMENT FOR CREW REST ARRIVING THERE AT ABOUT 0600-0630. HE GOT ABOUT 5 HOURS SLEEP, WAKING AT ABOUT 1200 HOURS. HE FLEW THE RETURN LEG OF THE OPERATION, TAKING OFF AT 2055 HOURS. AT 2230 HOURS, AFTER MAINTAINING A CONSTANT AIRSPEED, HEADING, AND ALTITUDE, HE COLLIDED WITH A MOUNTAIN. THE MOUNTAIN WAS ABOUT 10 NAUTICAL MILES SOUTH OF HIS USUAL COURSE. NO EVIDENCE COULD BE FOUND TO INDICATE THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO AVOID COLLIDING WITH THE MOUNTAIN. THE AIRCRAFT AND ALL COMPONENTS WERE EXAMINED, WITH NO DEFICIENCIES BEING NOTED. ANOTHER PILOT AT THE COMPANY APARTMENT REPORTED THAT A BOX OF 'DIMETAPP' DECONGESTION PILLS WERE ON THE PILOT'S SHAVING KIT AND THAT TWO PILLS WERE MISSING.
Probable cause
INCAPACITATION OF THE PILOT DUE TO INADEQUATE SLEEP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA124
- Event ID
- 20001212X16613
- Case number
- LAX91FA124
- 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 1991-03-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a7ce35a9cf176b62ae752d76d3f0f1a659fa0d6f4d3f4505d80c5126404ad15d; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:04:19.415Z.