LAX88FA277 · Cessna 414A
Cessna 414A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH) to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA277
- 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 414A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 414
- 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
- N414YV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH), Bishop, CATo Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT-OWNER DECIDED TO OVERFLY A GLACIER WHICH WAS LOCATED IN THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. THE GLACIER WAS LOCATED NEAR THE 12,000 FOOT MSL BASE OF A 14,000 FOOT MSL MOUNTAIN NEAR THE HEAD OF A BOX CANYON. WITNESSES REPORTED CLEARLY OBSERVING THE ACFT ENTER THE CANYON AREA. WHEN THE ACFT WAS NEARLY OVER THE GLACIER THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO COMMENCE A COURSE REVERSAL. DURING THE TURN THE ACFT STALLED, DESCENDED RAPIDLY & CRASHED INTO ROCKY 40 DEGREE UPSLOPING TERRAIN WHEREUPON IT BURNED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT INTENTIONALLY FLEW OVER AN AREA OF HIGH TERRAIN IN WHICH HE FAILED TO MAINTAIN THE PROPER ALTITUDE AND HE DELAYED HIS DECISION TO REVERSE COURSE. A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA277
- Event ID
- 20001213X26270
- Case number
- LAX88FA277
- 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: 5c885d7a103a59fad9052da2248368a3c87de81dff904d461903b575968aca7d; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:37:38.026Z.