DCA89MA026 · Cessna 402B
Cessna 402B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA89MA026
- 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
- 10 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 402B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N69383
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, intentional
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Corona, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS OPERATING AN ON-DEMAND AIR TAXI PASSENGER FLT TO SANTA ANA, CA. THE ACDT OCCURRED DRG DESCENT, WHEN THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A MTN AT 2060 FT MSL. THE PLT HAD RCVD A PREFLT WX BRIEFING IN WHICH HE WAS ADVISED OF LOW CEILINGS AND REDUCED VIS IN THE LOS ANGELES BASIN, SURROUNDING MTNS OBSCURED BY CLOUDS, AND THAT VFR FLT TO SANTA ANA WAS NOT RECOMMENDED. HE DEPARTED VFR. WHILE EN ROUTE, THE PLT WAS ADVISED THAT SANTA ANA WAS REPORTING 1400 FT OVCST WITH 5 MILES VIS. A VIDEOTAPE RECORDED BY A PASSENGER SHOWED MTN PEAKS PROTRUDING THROUGH A SOLID CLOUD LAYER AND SHOWED THE ACFT DESCENDING INTO THE CLOUDS. WITNESSES DESCRIBED A LOW CLOUD CEILING NR THE CRASH SITE AND CLOUD TOPS AT 5000 FT. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED EVIDENCE OF POWERED FLT AND NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT CONTROL OR ENGINE MALFUNCTION.RECORDS INDICATED THAT THE PLT HAD ENCOUNTERED IMC ON ONLY 1 FLT IN THE PREVIOUS 9 MOS. HE WAS DIR OF OPNS FOR THE OPERATOR.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY PREFLIGHT AND PLAN FOR FLIGHT AND HIS INTENTIONAL FLIGHT INTO IMC CONDITIONS. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE LOW CEILING CONDITIONS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA89MA026
- Event ID
- 20001213X27704
- Case number
- DCA89MA026
- 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: 83de1a8a5c8b497141756b817d53ed3c569e4e4d59ee736683845bede66a3376; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:09:30.964Z.