LAX89FA025 · Piper PA31P-350
Piper PA31P-350 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From IMP · Imperial, CA to L12 · Redlands, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA025
- 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 PA31P-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA31
- 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
- N79HW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From IMP · Imperial, CATo L12 · Redlands, 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 · circling (IFR)
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ARPT IS NEXT TO NORTON AFB. THE WEATHER ON THE DARK MOONLESS NIGHT WAS 1 MI VIS IN FOG AND HAZE. THE PLT COMPLETED AN ILS TO A LOW APPROACH AT NORTON AND RECEIVED A SPECIAL VFR CLEARANCE TO PROCEED TO REDLANDS. THE CIRCLING MDA FOR NORTON IS 1,700 FT MSL. NORTON AFB ELEV IS 1,100 FT MSL, AND THE REDLANDS AIRPORT ELEV IS 1,572 FT MSL. THE CIRCLING MDA FOR NORTON IS 138 FT ABOVE THE REDLANDS AIRPORT ARPT ELEV. THE RECORDED RADAR DATA SHOWED THAT THE FLT DESCENDED TO 1,800 FT ON THE ILS, THEN THE MODE C VARIED BETWEEN 1,700 AND 1,600 FT. THE LAST RADAR RETURN WAS ABOUT 1 MI FROM THE REDLANDS ARPT AT 1,600 FT MSL. A WITNESS ON THE AIRPORT SAW THE ACFT FLY OVER RUNWAY 8 IN A SOUTH TO NORTH DIRECTION, 'LOW AND FAST.' THE WITNESS HEARD THE CRASH SOUNDS IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER. EVIDENCE AT THE ACCIDENT SITE REVEALED THE ACFT LEFT WING CONTACTED THE GROUND IN A 42 DEGREE LEFT BANK IN A SLIGHT NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. FEW GROUND REFERENCE LIGHTS EXIST IN THE AREA AND THE PLT HAD MIN TTL NIGHT TIME.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT SELECTION OF AN INAPPROPRIATE ALTITUDE FOR THE ATTEMPTED NIGHT SPECIAL VFR CIRCLE TO LAND MANEUVER. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE DARK NIGHT, RESTRICTED VISIBILITIES AND LACK OF GROUND REFERENCE LIGHTS. ALSO CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S LIMITED TOTAL NIGHT EXPERIENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA025
- Event ID
- 20001213X27083
- Case number
- LAX89FA025
- 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 1988-10-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1aadb25fcee2e405471c7da802608d80466f5fad62c75ab7572c57e5c8040ad6; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:30:29.678Z.