LAX89LA139 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA139
- 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
- 0 · 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 172
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N20356
- Operator
- Yehiam Kanski
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo not recorded
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Buzzing, intentional
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not possible
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN OBSERVED FOR SEVERAL MINUTES FLYING VERY LOW OVER THE WATER. AT ONE POINT, IT STRUCK THE WATER BUT RECOVERED AND FLEW A BIT HIGHER ABOVE THE WATER FOR ANOTHER MILE. THE AIRPLANE DID NOT TURN TOWARD THE SHORELINE AND IT APPEARED TO GLIDE NOSE DOWN INTO THE WATER. THE STUDENT PILOT SAID HE WAS DESCENDING TOWARD THE WATER AT 400 TO 600 FPM WHEN THE ENGINE BACKFIRED. HE SAID THAT HE APPLIED CARBURETOR HEAT BUT THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO RUN ROUGH AND WOULD PRODUCE ONLY 1,200 RPM. HE FLEW AT THIS POWER SETTING FOR A MILE OR MORE, JUST ABOVE THE WATER, AND EVEN STRUCK THE TOPS OF THE WAVES AT TIMES. THE WHEELS STRUCK THE WATER AND THE AIRPLANE BOUNCED, AND THEN NOSED INTO THE WATER. THE WRECKAGE WAS NOT RECOVERED.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISIONS BY THE PLT WHEN HE DECIDED TO INTENTIONALLY FLY LOW OVER ROUGH WATER IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND THE PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA139
- Event ID
- 20001213X27928
- Case number
- LAX89LA139
- 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: 58377472a58eec14654895c939ec6ff2315aa34cf3818dc45e315fa0bcfe98fc; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:56:57.222Z.