LAX88FA118 · Grumman AA-5B
Grumman AA-5B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Q68 · GROVE LANE, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA118
- 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
Grumman AA-5B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman AA-5
- 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
- N74236
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Q68 · GROVE LANE, 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
- 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, carburetor › Failure, partial
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT ENG LOST POWER WHILE THE PLT WAS MANEUVERING IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN IN MARGINAL WEATHER AND THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES AND TERRAIN. THE PLT RECEIVED A PREFLT WX BRIEFING DETAILING MOUNTAIN OBSCURATION AND VFR WAS NOT RECOMMENDED. DURING THE FLT PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, THE ACFT EXPERIENCED A CARBURETOR FIRE. REVIEW OF MAINTENANCE RECORDS REVEALED THAT PROPER PROCEDURES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MANUFACTURERS MAINTENANCE MANUAL WERE NOT FOLLOWED. POST ACCIDENT EXAM OF CARBURETOR REVEALED THAT THE ACCELERATOR PUMP PLUNGER RETAINER WASHER WAS WORN AND HAD SLIPPED OFF THE PLUNGER SEAT. EVIDENCE OF BACKFIRING WAS FOUND IN THE CARBURETOR AIR BOX, AIR FILTER AND VENTURI. THE AIR BOX WAS CLEANED AND AIR FILTER WAS REPORTEDLY REPLACED PREVIOUS TO THE ACCIDENT FLT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER MAINTENANCE PERFORMED PREVIOUS TO THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT WHICH FAILED TO IDENTIFY A FAULT WHICH RENDERED THE AIRPLANE NONAIRWORTHY. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S EXERCISE OF POOR JUDGEMENT IN DISREGARDING WEATHER FORECASTS INDICATING WEATHER WAS BELOW MINIMUMS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA118
- Event ID
- 20001213X25099
- Case number
- LAX88FA118
- 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: 19fe8f304f79bc5e921ed283c2479d5b293b9d08121df4d15c965f9805bbc8c4; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:47:59.826Z.