LAX90FA002 · Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20 · Accident: vortex turbulence encountered on approach
From Cliff Hatfield Memorial Airport (CLR) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA002
- 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
- 4 · 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
Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N3063T
- Operator
- Tuomela, Clyde · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cliff Hatfield Memorial Airport (CLR), Calipatria, CATo Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Vortex turbulence encountered
- 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 › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIPER PA-28 PLT ENTERED LEFT TRAFFIC TO LAND ON RWY 12 IN WINDS THAT WERE VARIABLE AT 6 KTS. THE RWY WAS 8500' LONG, BUT IT HAD A 1200' DISPLACED THRESHOLD. AT ABT THE SAME TIME, A BOEING 727 (ALASKA FLT 192) WAS ON AN APCH TO LAND ON THE SAME RWY. THE TWR CTLR ADZD THE PA-28 PLT OF THE OTHER TRAFFIC & CAUTIONED HIM ABT WAKE TURBULENCE. THE PA-28 WAS ABEAM THE APCH END OF THE RWY ON A CLOSE DOWNWIND AS FLT 192 LANDED. THE PA-28 PLT WAS CLRD TO LAND & HE ENTERED AN 'IMMEDIATE STEEP BANK AND DESCENDING TURN.' RPRTDLY, THE PA-28 WAS MANEUVERED ONTO FINAL APCH ABT 100' TO 200' AGL, THEN IT BEGAN OSCILLATING EXCESSIVELY & CRASHED. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS EVIDENT. A WEIGHT & BALANCE COMPUTATION SHOWED THE PA-28 WAS ABT 150 LBS OVER ITS MAX GROSS WEIGHT LIMITATION & THE CG WAS 3.86 INCHES BEHIND THE AFT LIMIT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, AND HIS FAILURE TO FOLLOW WAKE TURBULENCE AVOIDANCE PROCEDURES, WHICH RESULTED IN A VORTEX TURBULENCE ENCOUNTER. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ASSURE THE AIRCRAFT WAS LOADED WITHIN ITS WEIGHT AND BALANCE LIMITATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA002
- Event ID
- 20001213X29623
- Case number
- LAX90FA002
- 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 1989-10-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 39e407471d7f62d395fe6995769bcb1b5cd582e6e9b6763d223b8c69ca5a4ef7; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:07:26.146Z.