LAX90LA296 · Cessna 182H
Cessna 182H · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From an unrecorded airport to F70
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA296
- 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
Cessna 182H
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N2355X
- Operator
- Armbruster, Alan E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo F70
- 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 downwind
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE THE PILOT WAS ENROUTE TO HIS DESTINATION AIRPORT AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ADVISED HIM THAT THEY WERE NOT RECEIVING HIS TRANSPONDER SIGNAL. AFTER LANDING HE AND THREE PASSENGERS TOOK OFF FOR A NIGHT SIGHTSEEING FLIGHT AFTER THE RUNWAY LIGHTING HAD TRANSFERRED FROM CONTINOUS 'ON' TO PILOT CONTROL. APPROXIMATELY 30 MINUTES AFTER TAKE OFF THE AIRCRAFT RETURNED FOR LANDING. WHEN THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO TURN 'ON' THE RUNWAY LIGHTS BY KEYING HIS RADIO TRANSMITTER THE AIRCRAFT'S CABIN LIGHTS DIMMED AND THE RUNWAY LIGHTING FAILED TO ILLUMINATE. THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND ON THE UNLIT AIRPORT. DURING THE GROUND ROLL THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED ONE OF THE PRECISION APPROACH PATH INDICATORS AND A FENCE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT THAT RESULTED IN HIS CONTINUING FLIGHT WITH AN INOPERATIVE ALTERNATOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA296
- Event ID
- 20001212X24059
- Case number
- LAX90LA296
- 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 1990-08-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 092a99e527cc839f180aae5c198e29f36e4d85f0d83378bfdd0bae0f6060dea7; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:45:44.066Z.