LAX90LA271 · Cessna R172K
Cessna R172K · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From L12 · Redlands, CA to 022 · Columbia, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA271
- 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
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Unknown
Cessna R172K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N758UV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L12 · Redlands, CATo 022 · Columbia, 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
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A WX BRIEFING THE PILOT WAS ADVISED THAT VFR FLT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED. WHILE ENROUTE TO COLUMBIA THE PILOT CALLED ATC REQUESTING WX INFO. THE CONTROLLER OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE ENTERING POSITIVE CONTROL AIRSPACE AND TOLD THE PLT TO REMAIN BELOW 18,000 FT. THE PLT TOLD THE CONTROLLER THAT IT WAS NECESSARY TO CLIMB ABOVE FL 180 TO REMAIN VFR. THE CONTROLLER ADVSD THE PLT TO CONTACT EDWARDS RAPCON IF HE REQUESTED ANY IFR ASSISTANCE. THE AIRPLANE'S MODE C TRANSPONDER WAS TRACKED FOR OVER AN HOUR BETWEEN FL 196 AND 14,300 FEET. THERE WERE NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE PLT. RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST AT 1709 - ABT 1 HOUR 9 MIN AFTER INITIAL CONTACT WITH THE PLT. THE ACFT WAS FOUND IN A MOUNTAINOUS AREA 7 MONTHS LATER AT 11,300 FT MSL. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH SUPPLEMENTAL OXYGEN. FORECASTED WX INDICATED MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN WITH A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HIGHER ELEVATIONS WITH POSSIBLE ACCUMULATIONS OF 2-3 FT OF SNOW, WINDS GUSTING TO 50 MPH AT HIGHER ELEVATIONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DECISION TO CONTINUE VFR FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, AND THE LIKELY EFFECT OF HYPOXIA ON THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA271
- Event ID
- 20001212X22447
- Case number
- LAX90LA271
- 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 1990-01-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 35b651906da61afa769a3aa67c72217ec49efc0cd5541149f3bc6581da58dba4; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:02:07.800Z.