LAX89FA287 · Cessna 180J
Cessna 180J and Beech 95-A55 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA287
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 180J
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N42695
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Rafael, CATo Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), Fresno, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Beech 95-A55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N9750Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), Sacramento, CATo Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX), Santa Maria, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEECH 95 (N9750Y) WAS TRACKING SOUTH AT APRX 185 KTS AS CESSNA 180 (N42695) WAS TRACKING 118 DEG AT ABOUT 147 KTS. BOTH WERE IN VMC, RCVG RADAR SVC (VFR FLT FLWG) FM STOCKTON TRACON. DRG AUTOMATED RADAR HANDOFFS TO TRACY SECTOR (TR) CTLR, THE PLTS RPRTD AT 5500' MSL. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE 2 ACFT CONVERGED, COLLIDED AT ABOUT 5500' MSL, THEN CRASHED IN UNCTLD DSCNTS. THE CTLR WAS OCCUPIED WITH CTLG 2 OTR ACFT. BOTH WERE OPERG UNDER IFR & REQUIRED HIS ATTN TO MAINT SEPN. THE COLLISION OCCURRED AS THE CTLR WAS CONCENTRATING ON SEPN OF THE 2 IFR ACFT. N9750Y CONVERGED ON N42695 FROM THE NE (APRX70 DEG LEFT OF N42695'S NOSE). N42695 CONVERGED ON N9750Y FM THE SW (APRX 48 DEG RGT OF N9750Y'S NOSE). THE CTLR WAS NOTAWARE OF THE COLLISION UNTIL LATER. THE STOCKTON ARTS II RADAR WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH A CONFLICT ALERT SYS. THE ARTS II RADAR WAS PROGRAMMED TO MOVE NO BEACON (VFR) CALL SIGNS TO THE TAB LIST AFTER NOT RCVG A TRANSPONDER REPLY FOR 5 SCANS (APRX 20 SEC). AFTER AN ADNL 33 SCANS (A TOTAL OF APRX 2.5 MIN), THE CALL SIGN WOULD DISAPPEAR FM THE TAB LIST, AS WELL.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY BOTH PILOTS, WHICH RESULTED IN THEIR FAILURE TO SEE-AND-AVOID EACH OTHER'S AIRCRAFT. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE LACK OF A CONFLICT ALERT SYSTEM FOR THE STOCKTON ARTS II RADAR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA287
- Event ID
- 20001213X29141
- Case number
- LAX89FA287
- 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: a44687309b408070ab80afc0a8856579cb76a74cc53522e0832d486976f3209c; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:11:04.562Z.