Las Vegas Airlines Piper PA31-350 accident
Piper PA31-350 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN) to North Las Vegas Airport (VGT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA058
- 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
- 5 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA31
- 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
- N350MR
- Operator
- Las Vegas Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN), Grand Canyon, AZTo North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), Las Vegas, NV
- 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
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMUTER FLIGHT WAS ENROUTE TO ITS HOME AIRPORT AND OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WHEN IT ENCOUNTERED LOW CEILINGS AND RAIN SHOWERS. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT CERTIFICATED FOR IFR COMMUTER FLIGHTS. INSTEAD OF GOING TO AN ALTERNATE AIRPORT THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO MAINTAIN VISUAL CONDITIONS AND REQUESTED AND RECEIVED A VISUAL CLEARANCE INTO THE TCA AND ADVISED THE CONTROLLER THAT HIS ALTITUDE WAS 5100 FEET MSL. HIS RADIO TRANSMISSION BECAME GARBLED DURING THE CLEARANCE READ BACK AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER THE CONTROLLER OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE'S RADAR TARGET TURN LEFT FROM ITS WESTERLY TRACK AND DISAPPEAR FROM HIS SCOPE. THERE WERE NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE PILOT AND THE CONTROLLER. WHEN THE AIRCRAFT FAILED TO ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION AN ALNOT WAS ISSUED. EARLY THE NEXT MORNING THE AIRCRAFT'S WRECKAGE WAS FOUND IMPACTED IN A MOUNTAIN APPROXIMATELY 10 MILES SOUTH OF COURSE AT AN ELEVATION OF 4100 FEET MSL. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PILOT HAD PREVIOUSLY AND SUCCESSFULLY FLOWN THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE IN IFR CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S POOR INFLIGHT DECISION BY NOT ELECTING TO PROCEED TO AN ALTERNATE AIRPORT AND TO CONTINUE TO THE FLIGHT UNDER VISUAL FLIGHT RULES INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. THE LOW CEILINGS AND VISIBILITIES ACROSS THE FLIGHT ROUTE AND THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WERE FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA058
- Event ID
- 20001212X18611
- Case number
- LAX92FA058
- 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: 059a9bbfa2097989597bc5f6b492c3b6367466925a7148fb6e82f2aea0f7cb31; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:01:16.886Z.