LAX88FA176 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Gillespie Field (SEE) to E14 · Avra Valley, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA176
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-140
- 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
- N4367J
- Operator
- Hampshire, Robert J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gillespie Field (SEE), El Cajon, CATo E14 · Avra Valley, AZ
- 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 into known adverse weather, performed
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command › Weather forecast, disregarded
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Guatay, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING THE NIGHT PRIOR TO PLANNED FLIGHT FROM LOCAL FSS. THE FSS SPECIALIST INFORMED THE PILOT OF MARGINAL VFR CONDITIONS AND FORECAST MODERATE TURBULENCE. THE PLT STATED HE WOULD CHECK THE WEATHER IN THE MORNING. THE NEXT DAY THE PILOT CHECKED WX AGAIN WITH THE FSS. THE SPECIALIST INFORMED THE PILOT HE DID NOT HAVE CURRENT LOCAL WX AND PRECEEDED TO GIVE PILOT 24 HR OUTLOOK. TURBULENCE WAS STILL FORECAST. THE PILOT DID NOT ATTEMPT TO CHECK LOCAL WX CONDITIONS PRIOR TO FLIGHT THREE HRS LATER. WITNESSES OBSERVED ACFT AT 200 FEET AGL IN AND OUT OF RAGGED BOTTOM OF OVERCAST IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. ACFT CRASHED IN LEVEL ATTITUDE NORTH OF COURSE HEADING ABOUT 90 DEG AWAY FROM COURSE AT 4,700 FOOT LEVEL OF A 5,054 FOOT MSL MOUNTAIN PEAK.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTIAN VFR WHILE FLYING IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA176
- Event ID
- 20001213X25712
- Case number
- LAX88FA176
- 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: 52126e3e4ff745633de451286f3fb56b15d559be503cad71bfd0686e8af7702f; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:43:57.541Z.