LAX90FA281 · Cessna 172E
Cessna 172E · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Santa Paula, CA to Meadows Field (BFL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA281
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172E
- 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
- N39155
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Paula, CATo Meadows Field (BFL), Bakersfield, 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
VISUAL METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS PREVAILED IN THE VICINITY OF THE SANTA PAULA, CA AIRPORT WHEN THE PILOT DEPARTED ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT. BROKEN CLOUDS WITH THE BASES AT 4,000 FT MSL AND TOPS BETWEEN 7,000 FT AND 8,000 FT MSL EXITED OVER THE MOUNTAINOUS AREA NORTH OF THE AIRPORT. AFTER DEPARTING THE AIRPORT, THE PILOT FLEW NORTH-NORTHEAST,. THE AIRPLANE FAILED TO REACH ITS DESTINATION AND AN AIR SEARCH WAS SUBSEQUENTLY INITIATED. THE AIRPLANE WAS FOUND ON AUGUST 10, 1990. THE WRECKAGE EXAM DISCLOSED THE AIRPLANE'S LEFT WING STRUCK THE 4,100 FT LEVEL OF A 4,200 FT MOUNTAIN RIDGE. THE AIRPLANE WAS TURNING LEFT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF AIRFRAME/ENGINE FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION PRECEDING THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER PREFLIGHT PLANNING AND PREPARATION AND HIS DELAYED REMEDIAL ACTION IN EXECUTING A 180 DEGREE TURN. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT ENCOUNTER WITH WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA281
- Event ID
- 20001212X22939
- Case number
- LAX90FA281
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: af814ee3de5b06545b6f077460068717fbbe420451c355f9055cbbf3183ce758; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:48:39.743Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states visual conditions prevailed "IN THE VICINITY OF THE SANTA PAULA, CA AIRPORT WHEN THE PILOT DEPARTED ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT" and "AFTER DEPARTING THE AIRPORT, THE PILOT FLEW NORTH-NORTHEAST"; the departure was not recorded.