LAX88FA114 · Beech A23
Beech A23 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Big Bear City Airport (L35) to L35
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA114
- 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
Beech A23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N1461L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Big Bear City Airport (L35), Big Bear City, CATo L35
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PASSENGER TOLD FRIENDS THAT THE PILOT WAS GOING TO PERFORM SOME AEROBATIC MANEUVERS NEAR THE LODGE WHERE THEY WERE STAYING. THE OTHER RESIDENTS IN THE LODGE REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE FLEW VERY LOW OVER THE HOUSE AND PROCEEDED TOWARDS THE EAST. AFTER REACHING THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE VALLEY, THE PILOT EXECUTED A 180 DEG RIGHT TURN TOWARDS THE LODGE. WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS ABOUT 1000 YARDS EAST OF THE LODGE, THE PILOT PULLED THE AIRPLANE INTO A NEAR VERTICAL CLIMBING ATTITUDE AND ENTERED INTO WHAT WAS DESCRIBED BY THE WITNESSES AS A HAMMERHEAD STALL TYPE MANEUVER. THE AIRPLANE THEN PITCHED DNWARD. BEFORE REACHING TREES, IT APPEARED THE NOSE WAS COMING UP BUT THE AIRPLANE DISAPPEARED BEHIND THE TREELINE. SHORTLY THEREAFTER THE WITNESSES HEARD A MUFFLED IMPACT SOUND AND THEN SAW A FIREBALL EMANATING FROM BEHIND THE TREELINE. THE INVESTIGATION DSCLD NO EVIDENCE OF ANY AIRPLANE PREIMPACT MALFUNCTIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA114
- Event ID
- 20001213X25097
- Case number
- LAX88FA114
- 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: da7f62c964809218ccf62317686a1877a6578e3523d44a6512aa2ad6506163ed; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:48:28.215Z.