LAX88FA240 · Cessna 172P
Funbirds Flying Club Cessna 172P · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA240
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172P
- 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
- N51234
- Operator
- Funbirds Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, CATo not recorded
- 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 object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Low pass, intentional
- Pilot in command › VFR procedures, not followed
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Descanso, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
NUMEROUS WITNESSES OBSERVED THE LOW FLYING ACFT AT ALTITUDES FROM 50 TO 300 FT AGL. THE ACFT WAS DESCRIBED BY SOME WITNESSES AS 'TERRAIN FLYING' AS IT PROCEEDED AT LOW ALTITUDES OVER THE ROLLING HILLS & ROADWAYS. THE JOY RIDING FLIGHT ENDED WHEN, AT 100 FT AGL, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION LINES. THE ACFT ENTERED AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT, CRASHED & BURNED ON INTERSTATE FREEWAY 8.
Probable cause
PILOT'S POOR JUDGMENT AND INTENTIONAL DECISION TO LOW FLY THE AIRCRAFT BELOW THE MINIMUM SAFE ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA240
- Event ID
- 20001213X25978
- Case number
- LAX88FA240
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1988-06-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0e604dd8bb2fbee5238593ecc738ca84bb878b00a1c5a2a561ba3e5b23f08c2e; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:40:11.525Z.