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LAX90FA070 · Piper PA-28-161

18 Jan 1990 · Burbank, CA, United States

Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR) to Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX90FA070
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
4 · 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 PA-28-161

Aircraft type
Piper PA-28
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
N8251B
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR)To Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA), Santa Barbara, 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
Maneuvering · turn to landing area (emergency)
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
Stall
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(cfi) › Airspeed, inadequate
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Impairment(drugs)
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Judgment, poor
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Stall, inadvertent
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT WAS SCHEDULED FOR A NGT INSTRUMENT TRAINING FLT WITH 2 ADDITIONAL PLTS ABOARD, WHO WERE SEEKING INSTRUMENT RATINGS. SHORTLY AFTER TAKING OFF FROM RWY 7, THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) RADIOED TO THE TOWER THAT AN IMMEDIATE LNDG WAS NECESSARY, BUT HE DID NOT GIVE A REASON. THE FLT WAS CLRD TO LAND. THE ACFT WAS THEN OBSERVED TO ENTER A STEEP LEFT TURN AT LOW ALT & DESCEND ABRUPTLY. IT CRASHED IN A STEEP DESCENT ABOUT 500 FT NORTH OF RWY 7 ON A HEADING OF ABOUT 260 DEG. IMPACT OCCURRED IN A LEFT WING LOW, NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT OR ENG WAS FOUND. TESTS OF THE CFI'S BLOOD SHOWED THAT IT CONTAINED 1 NG/ML OF DELTA-9-TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL (A PSYCHOACTIVE COMPONENT OF MARIJUANA) & 7 NG/ML OF DELTA-9-TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL CARBOXYLIC ACID (A METABOLITE OF MARIJUANA). GROSS WT OF THE ACFT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 2411 LBS; ITS MAX CERTIFIED GROSS WT WAS 2325 LBS.

Probable cause

POOR JUDGEMENT OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) DUE TO HIS IMPAIRMENT FROM USE OF MARIJUANA, INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT BY THE CFI, AND HIS FAILURE TO ASSURE THAT ADEQUATE AIRSPEED WAS MAINTAINED, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE CFI'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING/PREPARATION, AND HIS FAILURE TO ASSURE THE AIRCRAFT WAS WITHIN ITS CERTIFIED GROSS WEIGHT LIMIT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX90FA070
Event ID
20001212X22430
Case number
LAX90FA070
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 1990-01-19.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 91d4dd385e0bd96dbba4ee78b0fb7e6eac1d0f2abde048e76f7cc35fbbd70c52; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:01:39.743Z.