LAX89FA021 · Cessna TR-182
Patroline Cessna TR-182 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Visalia Municipal Airport (VIS) to Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA021
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna TR-182
- Aircraft type
- Cessna TR-182
- 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
- N739YS
- Operator
- Patroline
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Visalia Municipal Airport (VIS), Visalia, CATo Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB), Paso Robles, 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
- Approach · IFR initial approach
- 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 › Altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, disregarded
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT DEPARTED VFR AND WHILE EN ROUTE ENCOUNTED IMC NEAR THE DESTINATION. THE PLT REQUESTED AN IFR CLEARANCE FOR A VOR-DME APCH. THE PLT WAS INFORMED BY ATC TO EXPECT A DELAY DUE TO ANOTHER ACFT EXECUTING THE MISSED APCH. THE PLT WAS ISSUED THE WX AS INDEFINATE 200 OBS, VIS 1/4 MILE. ONE MILE VIS WAS REQUIRED FOR A STRAIGHT-IN LANDING. THE PLT ACCEPTED THE APCH CLEARANCE AND STARTED A DESCENT. THE ACFT DESCENDED 1,200 BELOW THE APCH PROFILE AND COLLIDED WITH TREES. POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE PLT WAS VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE TERRAIN AND WAS KNOWLEDGEABLE OF RANCH AIRSTRIPS WHERE HE HAD LANDED PREVIOUS TO THIS FLT TO WAIT OUT THE WX AT THE SAME DESTINATION ARPT. THE COURSE BEING FLOWN BY THE PLT WOULD HAVE TAKEN HIM DIRECT TO ONE OF THESE RANCHES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN THE PROPER ALTITUDE WHILE EXECUTING THE PUBLISHED INSTRUMENT APPROACH PROCEDURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA021
- Event ID
- 20001213X27080
- Case number
- LAX89FA021
- 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: 8b4e458a4e35e6c1b8034ae9ef0cb36f3bc68025201c2ff541e753fe8326b513; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:31:05.931Z.