LAX90LA152 · Piper PA-28-161
Chandler Air Service Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA152
- 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
- 0 · 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
- N2110D
- Operator
- Chandler Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT RELATED THAT SHE WAS ON HER SECOND SOLO FLIGHT AND HAD PLANNED TO PERFORM SOME TOUCH AND GO LANDINGS THEN DEPART THE AIRPORT TO THE SOUTH FOR SOME AIR WORK. UPON COMPLETION OF THE PLANNED AIR WORK, SHE ATTEMPTED TO FIND THE AIRPORT AND STATED THAT SHE HAD DIFFICULTIES FINDING THE AIRPORT AND POSSIBLY OVERFLEW IT. WHEN SHE FOUND THE AIRPORT, SHE SAID THAT SHE BECAME CONCERNED WITH THE AIRCRAFT'S FUEL STATUS AND ABOUT TRAFFIC AROUND THE AIRPORT. SHE STATED THAT SHE GOT 'LOW' ON HER APPROACH AND THEN NOTICED THAT THE ENGINE '...DID NOT SOUND RIGHT.' THE PILOT STATED: 'I KNOW THAT I WAS TOO LOW BECAUSE BOTH VASI LIGHTS WERE RED. THAT IS WHEN I MUST HAVE PULLED BACK ON THE CONTROLS AND STALLED THE PLANE. AN AIR WORTHINESS INSPECTOR FROM THE SCOTTSDALE (ARIZONA) FLIGHT STANDARDS DISTRICT OFFICE (FAA) INSPECTED THE AIRCRAFT AFTER THE ACCIDENT AND COULD FIND NO REASON FOR THE ENGINE TO HAVE LOST POWER.
Probable cause
THE STUDENT PILOT INADVERTENTLY STALLING THE AIRCRAFT AND AN INADEQUATE ALTITUDE TO PERFORM A STALL RECOVERY. FACTORS IN THIS ACCIDENT WERE: LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE AND STUDENT'S ANXIETY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA152
- Event ID
- 20001212X22955
- Case number
- LAX90LA152
- 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 1990-04-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ee55b4539ea2d49ed005e6b95dbbf92d0cb63b58627b8ffc8ae639861f207696; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:25:32.207Z.