LAX89FA241 · Cessna 177
Cessna 177 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From L26 to Upland-Cable Airport (CCB)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA241
- 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
- 3 · 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 177
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N30039
- Operator
- Rene G. Munsey · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L26To Upland-Cable Airport (CCB), Upland, 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
- 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 object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES SAID THAT AFTER TAKEOFF THE AIRCRAFT FLEW A CURVING RIGHT HAND FLIGHT PATH AT LOW ALTITUDE BACK TOWARD THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY USED FOR DEPARTURE. AT A POINT CORRESPONDING TO A MODIFIED AND EXTENDED RIGHT BASE LEG FOR THE RUNWAY, THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A HIGH TENSION POWER LINE AT AN ALTITUDE OF 32 FT AGL. AT THE TIME OF WIRE CONTACT, THE AIRCRAFT WAS FLYING PARALLEL WITH THE POWER LINE. A POST CRASH FIRE CONSUMED THE AIRCRAFT. EXTENSIVE EXAMINATION OF THE SURVIVING WRECKAGE COMPONENTS REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PRE-IMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE. AUTOMOTIVE FUEL OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN OR QUALITY WAS PROBABLY BEING USED IN THE AIRCRAFT WITHOUT AN APPROVED STC. ACCORDING TO A SECOND HAND ACCOUNT FROM THE SURVIVING CHILD PASSENGER, THE TWO PILOTS BEGAN 'FIGHTING OVER THE CONTROLS' AFTER TAKEOFF, WITH ONE PILOT REPORTEDLY TELLING THE OTHER THAT 'HE TURNED THE WRONG WAY.' THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED ON A DARK NIGHT OVER AN AREA WITH NO GROUND REFERENCE LIGHTS.
Probable cause
AN INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH A POWER LINE WHILE MANEUVERING AT LOW ALTITUDE SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTURE ON A DARK NIGHT OVER AN AREA WITH FEW GROUND REFERENCE LIGHTS. THE REASONS FOR THE AIRCRAFT'S FLIGHT PATH AND ALTITUDE PROFILE ARE UNDETERMINED. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE APPARENT DISAGREEMENT WHICH OCCURRED BETWEEN THE TWO PILOTS DURING THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT SEQUENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA241
- Event ID
- 20001213X28858
- Case number
- LAX89FA241
- 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 1989-07-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ce4c66562df1853f30fa727fe6fa75303470ba335966ef25918d2fa789d11511; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:13:43.894Z.