LAX90FA292 · Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20
Benbow Aviation Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20 and Cessna 172P · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA292
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20
- 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
- N3054N
- Operator
- Benbow Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From T0A · Torrance, CATo 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172P
- 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
- N114RJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, CATo 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Dual student › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PIPER PA-28RT-201 AND A CESSNA 172P WERE FLYING PARALLEL WESTERLY COURSES ABOVE A JETTY WHICH FORMED A LINEAR GROUND REFERENCE OVER OPEN WATER. THE PIPER WAS TO THE LEFT OF THE CESSNA JUST PRIOR TO THE COLLISION. THE PIPER WAS CONFIGURED FOR SLOW FLIGHT WITH THE FLAPS EXTENDED AND LANDING GEAR DOWN. THE CESSNA FLAPS WERE RETRACTED AND THE CESSNA WAS FLYING FASTER THAN THE PIPER. THE CESSNA STRUCK THE PIPER'S OUTBOARD RIGHT WING TIP WITH THE LEFT WING STRUT SEVERING THE RIGHT WING TIP AND BENDING THE REMAINING OUTBOARD PORTION OF THE WING SPAR FORWARD. THE OUTBOARD PORTION OF THE PIPER'S RIGHT WING WAS SEVERED. THE AZIMUTH AND ANGLE OF THE SUN WAS TO THE LEFT AND TO THE FRONT OF BOTH AIRPLANES.
Probable cause
THE INADEQUATE VISUAL OUTLOOK OF THE PILOTS OF THE CESSNA 172P AND THEIR FAILURE TO SEE AND AVOID THE PIPER PA- 28RT-201. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE AZIMUTH AND ANGLE OF THE SUN WHICH WAS IN A POSITION AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT TO IMPAIR THE SCAN OF THE CESSNA 172P PILOTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA292
- Event ID
- 20001212X24036
- Case number
- LAX90FA292
- 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. 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: a7fada14bd737400e0afcfdfc7f66926d1e901d306c34c0625629be1d77bab78; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:21:05.705Z.