LAX90FA233 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A and US Navy Grumman F-14A · Accident: near collision between aircraft en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA233
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N39843
- Operator
- Mcnary, Jacqueline W & James
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Monterey Regional Airport (MRY), Monterey, 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Grumman F-14A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman F-14
- 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
- USN
- Operator
- U.S. Navy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Point Mugu Naval Air Station (Naval Base Ventura Co) (NTD), NAS POINT MUGU, CATo Point Mugu Naval Air Station (Naval Base Ventura Co) (NTD), NAS POINT MUGU, 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 · descent
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(artcc) › Traffic advisory, issued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE NAVY PILOT HAD RECEIVED CLEARANCE TO DESCEND FROM 9,000 FT TO 5,000 FT ON A SOUTH-EASTERLY COURSE. THE WESTBOUND BELLANCA WAS CRUISING IN LEVEL FLIGHT AT 8,500 FT. VFR CONDITIONS PREVAILED. WHEN THE TWO AIRPLANES WERE BETWEEN 100-300 FT OF EACH OTHER, THE NAVY PILOT OBSERVED THE TARGET AND ABRUPTLY PULLED UP. THE BELLANCA PASSED BENEATH THE F-14 AND ENCOUNTERED ITS WAKE. BOTH AIRPLANES LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. THE BELLANCA'S RIGHT WING'S REAR MAIN WOODEN SPAR WAS FOUND BROKEN. AT THE TIME, THE F-14 WAS BEING RADAR CONTROLLED BY A TRAINEE CONTROLLER UNDER DIRECT SUPERVISION. THE SUPERVISOR HAD OBSERVED THE POSSIBLE TRAFFIC CONFLICT, AND HAD DIRECTED THE TRAINEE TO INFORM THE F-14. RESPONDING TO THE ADVISORY, THE PILOT OF THE F-14 OBSERVED THE TRAFFIC AND TOOK EVASIVE ACTION.
Probable cause
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED BY THE BELLANCA, N39843, AS A RESULT OF ENCOUNTERING WAKE TURBULENCE DURING A NEAR-COLLISION WITH A NAVY F-14A.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA233
- Event ID
- 20001212X23447
- Case number
- LAX90FA233
- 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, damage. 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: e2342fdd282e7a5439df9c452c15afb89de5fad1020e492beab591f65b735c41; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:50:23.216Z.