LAX92LA023 · Piper PA28-140
Piper PA28-140 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL) to Chiriaco Summit Airport (L77)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA023
- 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
- 0 · 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 PA28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N3771K
- Operator
- Bonak, Steven P · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, CATo Chiriaco Summit Airport (L77), CHIRIACO SUMMIT, 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, improper
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PIPER PA 28-140 COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN AFTER A LOSS OF CONTROL WHILE LANDING ON RUNWAY 24. THERE WAS A SLIGHT CROSSWIND DURING THE LANDING ATTEMPT. THE PILOT ESTIMATED THE WIND CONDITIONS TO BE FROM 300 DEGREES AT 10 KNOTS. DURING THE FINAL APPROACH AND LANDING FLARE THE NOSE OF THE AIRPLANE WEATHER VANED INTO THE WIND. THE PILOT ELECTED TO GO-AROUND AND LOST DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ON THE LET SHOULDER OF THE RUNWAY AND BOUNCED. THE AIRPLAANE ROLLED OUT IN SANDY TERRAIN COLLAPSING THE NOSE GEAR AND DAMAGING THE WINGS. THE PILOT INDICATED THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL FALURES OR MALFUNCTIONS WITH THE AIRPLANE BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE DELAYED ACTIONS OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND IN SELECTING A GO-AROUND ND SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WHICH RESULTED IN THE AIRPLANE DRIFTING OFF THE RUNWAY CENTERLINE AND COLLIDING WITH TERRAIN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO COMPENSATE FOR WIND CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA023
- Event ID
- 20001212X18332
- Case number
- LAX92LA023
- 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: 83b6592b83d058a34aa18c44886720c55fb2ac5d4ed5b0776448ffaf7c4b7c56; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:23:58.155Z.