LAX99FA200 · MBB BO 105LS A-3 BO 105LS A
MBB BO 105LS A-3 BO 105LS A · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From EL TORO, CA to PEBBLY BEACH, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99FA200
- 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
- 3 · 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
MBB BO 105LS A-3 BO 105LS A
- Aircraft type
- MBB BO-105
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N811CE
- Operator
- Southern California Edison
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From EL TORO, CATo PEBBLY BEACH, 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
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The purpose of the flight was to transport two company employees to an island located 22 miles offshore. The pilot was not instrument rated. The weather conditions along the coast consisted of overcast skies with cloud bases from 700 to 1,100 feet, and, tops between 1,900 and 2,200 feet; visibilities were generally in the 4- to 5-mile range. Ground and pilot witnesses said that a localized area of lower cloud bases, between 350 and 500 feet, and reduced visibilities of about 1.5 miles existed in the area of the accident site. Review of recorded radar data disclosed that the helicopter descended from a cruise altitude of 900 feet and crossed the shoreline at 400 feet. As the helicopter reached the accident site location, it climbed to 600 feet over 19 seconds, then turned right to a northerly heading while the altitude climbed from 600 to 900 feet; the radius of turn was calculated at 720 feet at an average ground speed of 69 knots. The helicopter then descended to 700 feet as the radar track began a wide left turn, which then reversed to a tight right turn. The last four radar returns showed a right turn with a 120-foot radius, with a constant Mode C report of 700 feet; the average computed ground speed during this turn was 67 knots. The last radar return was a secondary beacon without a Mode C altitude report; the location of the last radar return was about 200 feet from where the wreckage was found on the ocean floor. No preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures were found during examination of the wreckage.
Probable cause
The pilot's in-flight loss of control due to spatial disorientation while maneuvering to reverse direction after an inadvertent encounter with instrument meteorological conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99FA200
- Event ID
- 20001212X18798
- Case number
- LAX99FA200
- 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: 4690db353150bb7118b545f7978aeed68344a4e99c76f4711581164d560ce455; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:05:03.149Z.