LAX91FA045 · Piper PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to L39 · Ramona, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA045
- 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
- 1 · 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
Piper PA-28R-201
- 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
- N31638
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), ALBUQUEROUE, NMTo L39 · Ramona, 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Fuel system, ram air/induction air › Ice
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT AND HIS WIFE WERE ATTEMPTING TO FLY NON-STOP FROM ALBUQUERQUE, NM, TO RAMONA, CA. THEY DEPARTED ALBUQUERQUE AT 1035 AND ENCOUNTERED CLOUDS, STRONG HEADWINDS, AND ICING CONDITIONS. IN AN EFFORT AT AVOIDING THE CLOUDS, THE PILOT CLIMBED TO 14,000 FEET. STILL IN CLOUDS WITH A GROUND SPEED OF 72 KNOTS, THE PILOT DESCENDED TO 12,000 FEET AND ELECTED TO LAND SHORT OF HIS PLANNED DESTINATION. WHILE DIVERTING TO SHOW LOW, AZ, IN FREEZING RAIN/SNOW CONDITIONS, THE FUEL INJECTED ENGINE STARTED RUNNING ROUGH AND LOST POWER AT ABOUT 1327. UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE, THE PILOT WAS FORCED TO LAND IN A WOODED AREA. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES AND CAME TO REST UPSIDE DOWN. THE ELT ACTIVATED AND THE SERIOUSLY INJURED WIFE AS RESCUED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION, WHICH RESULTED IN LOSS OF ENGINE POWER, DUE TO INDUCTION SYSTEM ICING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITION AND LACK OF A SUITABLE AREA FOR A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA045
- Event ID
- 20001212X24627
- Case number
- LAX91FA045
- 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: 4144e85bdaae1439296893402404c5f99bf08893fca06972add000baf0752d0c; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:04:01.754Z.