Ameriflight Piper PA-31-350 accident
Piper PA-31-350 and Beech C-99 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA036
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 · Piper PA-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N4098A
- Operator
- Ameriflight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ontario International Airport (ONT)To Inyokern Airport (IYK), Inyokern, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Taxi
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Beech C-99
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft C-99
- 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
- N108SX
- Operator
- Ameriflight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ontario International Airport (ONT)To Oxnard Airport (OXR), Oxnard, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 › Brakes(normal), improper use of
- Pilot of other aircraft › Brakes(normal), improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BOTH COMPANY AIRCRAFT WERE HOLDING SHORT OF THE RUNWAY, WITH THE ENGINES RUNNING, AWAITING THEIR SEPERATE TAKEOFF CLEARANCES. BEECH C-99, N108SX, WAS AHEAD OF PIPER PA-31-350, N4098A. THE PILOT OF THE PIPER PA-31-350 STATED THAT HIS FOOT SLIPPED OFF THE BRAKE PEDAL AND HIS AIRCRAFT ROLLED FORWARD, STRIKING THE EMPENNAGE OF THE BEECH C-99.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE OF BRAKES BY THE PILOT OF THE PIPER PA-31.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA036
- Event ID
- 20001213X29643
- Case number
- LAX90LA036
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 5784765f6c8843188f85a3e68278d7a9456e9f0d5dbc94795d17935c3501f621; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:07:10.913Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N4098A; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, JIKA.