LAX88FA094 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 and Cessna 411 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA094
- 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
- 2 · 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 · Cessna 172
- 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
- N5113A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L66 · Corona, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, 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
- 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 411
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 411
- 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
- N63CA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › 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 TWIN CESSNA COLLIDED WITH A SINGLE ENGINE CESSNA FROM THE SINGLE ENGINE CESSNA'S 7 O'CLOCK POSITION. THE SINGLE ENGINE CESSNA CRASHED AND THE TWIN CESSNA LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. BOTH AIRPLANES WERE CONDUCTING VISUAL FLIGHT RULES PERSONAL FLIGHTS TO VAN NUYS, CA. THE SINGLE ENGINE CESSNA 172 WAS RECEIVING TRAFFIC ADVISORIES FROM BURBANK TRACON. THE TWIN ENGINE CESSNA HAD DEPARTED FULLERTON AND WAS FLYING A CIRCUITOUS ROUTE TO VAN NUYS IN ORDER TO AVOID THE AIRPORT RADAR SERVICE AREA. THE SINGLE ENGINE CESSNA WAS TRANSPONDER EQUIPPED BUT WITHOUT MODE C CAPABILITY. THE TWIN ENGINE CESSNA WAS EQUIPPED WITH, AND USING, A TRANSPONDER WITH MODE C CAPABILITY. THE RADAR DATA STUDY REVEALED THAT THE TWIN ENGINE CESSNA WAS DISPLAYED ON THE CONTROLLER'S RADAR SCOPE FOR ABOUT 4 MINUTES BEFORE THE COLLISION. THE CONTROLLER DID NOT WARN THE SINGLE ENGINE CESSNA PILOT OF THE CONVERGING TRAFFIC. THE TRACON WAS NOT PROGRAMMED TO ALERT THE CONTROLLER OF A CONFLICT BETWEEN A TRACKED (C-172) AND UNTRACKED (C-411) TARGET.
Probable cause
PILOT OF N63CA IMPROPER VISUAL LOOK-OUT. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE CONTROLLER'S FAILURE TO OBSERVE THE FASTER MOVING AIRPLANE APPROACHING THE SINGLE ENGINE CESSNA FROM THE REAR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA094
- Event ID
- 20001213X24919
- Case number
- LAX88FA094
- 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: 35360ec00a0319917b2b0e5096f96519031ad89b73a2ccf24a6a3a109785ee6e; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:50:02.095Z.