LAX89FA111 · Cessna 340A
Cessna 340A · Accident en route
From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT) to Las Cruces International Airport (LRU)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA111
- 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 340A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N8814K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), Fresno, CATo Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NM
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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 › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment(anoxia/hypoxia)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE NIGHT CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT AT FL250, THE PILOT ELECTED TO LEAVE THE COCKPIT AREA AND MOVE TO THE REAR OF THE AIRCRAFT TO ATTEND TO PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS. ALTHOUGH OXYGEN WAS AVAILABLE IN THE COCKPIT, SUPPLEMENTAL OXYGEN WAS NOT AVAILABLE IN THE REAR. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OPERATED WITH A KNOWN PRESSURIZATION SYSTEM DEFICIENCY WHICH LIMITED THE AIRPLANE TO FLIGHT TO 17,000 FEET MSL WHILE MAINTAINING A CABIN ALTITUDE OF 10,000 FEET. AFTER 2 HOURS AND 10 MINUTES, ATC DECLARED THE FLIGHT TO BE 'NO RADIO'. AT 3 HOURS AND 57 MINUTES AFTER DEPARTURE, THE AIRPLANE WAS PLOTTED ON RADAR IN A DESCENDING LEFT TURN TO GROUND IMPACT. FUEL STARVATION RESULTED IN POWER LOSS TO THE LEFT ENGINE. PROPELLER SIGNATURES INDICATED POWER ON THE RIGHT PROPELLER AT IMPACT. THE PILOT'S BODY WAS FOUND IN THE AFT CABIN AREA ON THE AFT CABIN BULKHEAD.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POOR JUDGEMENT AND THE RESULTANT HYPOXIA SUSTAINED IN THE UNPRESSURIZED AIRPLANE. FACTORS WERE: THE MALFUNCTIONING PRESSURIZATION SYSTEM AND THE PILOT'S DECISION TO CONTINUE OPERATION WITH THAT KNOWN DISCREPANCY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA111
- Event ID
- 20001213X27741
- Case number
- LAX89FA111
- 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 1989-02-15.
- API snapshot SHA-256: cc05d92f3704c5524a80878c9f5573480125dc6fd4e649dd2099c7ab1ac38604; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:24:21.754Z.