LAX90FA031 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Camarillo International Airport (CMA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA031
- 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
- 1 · 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
Piper PA-28R-200
- 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
- N2723R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Camarillo International Airport (CMA), Camarillo, 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
- Approach · IFR initial approach
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG A NIGHT ARRIVAL, THE PLT CONTACTED NAS POINT MUGU APCH CTL & WAS CLRD FOR A VOR RWY 26 APCH. AS THE PLT CONTD THE APCH, THE ACFT VEERED RADICALLY OFF COURSE TO THE RIGHT & DSCNDD PREMATURELY. THE CTLR ISSUED A SAFETY ALERT & TOLD THE PLT TO TURN LEFT TO A HEADING OF 210 DEG & TO CLIMB & MAINT 2100 FT. THE PLT ACKNOWLEDGED, BUT FAILED TO TAKE ADEQUATE CORRECTIVE ACTION. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 1100 FT, AS IT WAS APCHG THE FINAL APCH FIX (FAF). MIN DSCNT ALT (MDA) ON THAT SEGMENT OF THE APCH WAS 2100 FT MSL. APRX 10 MI SW AT POINT MUGU (ELEV 12 FT), THE 2155 PST WX WAS IN PART: 1000 FT OVC, 6 MI VIS WITH FOG & HAZE. THE PLT HAD BEEN ISSUED AN INSTRUMENT RATING ON 4/28/89. SINCE THAT DATE, HE HAD LOGGED ONLY 5.5 HRS OF INSTRUMENT TIME & 4 INSTRUMENT APCHS.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IFR PROCEDURE BY THE PILOT, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE (MDA) FOR THAT SEGMENT OF THE VOR APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, LOW CEILING, FOG, HAZE, THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT INSTRUMENT EXPERIENCE, AND HIS PROBABLE SPATIAL DISORIENTATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA031
- Event ID
- 20001213X29814
- Case number
- LAX90FA031
- 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 1989-11-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 55d37fe89086208c379f524dd31be362358563ee66f615c2578a4d6ea24937fc; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:05:17.843Z.