LAX89FA319 · Cessna 310K
Cessna 310K · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) to TOR · Torrance, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA319
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 310K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N6958L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, NVTo TOR · Torrance, 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
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PRIOR TO DEPARTURE THE PILOT RECEIVED AN ABBREVIATED WX BRIEFING IN PERSON FROM THE RENO FSS, AND WAS GIVEN THE ADVERSE WX CONDITIONS & CURRENT WX FOR HIS PLANNED ROUTE OF FLIGHT. HE WAS ALSO ADVISED THAT VFR FLIGHT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED. THE AIRPLANE WAS LATER OBSERVED FLYING OVER A HIGHWAY AT LOW ALTITUDE; WHICH THE WITNESSES DEFINED AS NOT HIGH ENOUGH TO CLEAR A MOUNTAIN RIDGE. THE TOP OF THE RIDGE LINE WAS OBSCURED, & THE AIRPLANE WAS IN & OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF THE CLOUDS. THERE WERE ALSO RAINSHOWERS IN THE AREA. THE RIGHT SEAT PILOT ALSO HELD AN ATP CERTIFICATE. HE WAS BEING TREATED FOR GLAUCOMA & WAS TAKING THE PRESCRIPTION DRUG ISOPTO CARPINE (PILOCARPINE). THE DANGER OF ADVERSE REACTIONS OR SIDE EFFECTS OF THE DRUG INCREASES WITH THE USE OF ALCOHOL. THESE EFFECTS INCLUDE REDUCED VISUAL ACUITY. THE RIGHT SEAT PILOT WAS WITH A GROUP THAT REPORTED HAD A FEW COCKTAILS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S INTENTIONAL VFR FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ALTITUDE TO PROVIDE TERRAIN CLEARANCE. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND THE SECOND PILOT'S POSSIBLE REDUCED VISION DUE TO HIS VISION PROBLEM AND MEDICATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA319
- Event ID
- 20001213X29405
- Case number
- LAX89FA319
- 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: 4039a8763d5918e00598d350501549e2fbade273305eb0de4a36676ded5257cb; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:08:49.319Z.