LAX87FA088 · Piper PA-24-180
Piper PA-24-180 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Oceano County Airport (L52) to Monterey Regional Airport (MRY)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA088
- 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
- 3 · 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-24-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N5982P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oceano County Airport (L52)To Monterey Regional Airport (MRY), Monterey, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE SURVIVING PAX (S/P) NOTICED THE ACFT BEGAN LOSING ALT. SHE HEARD THE PLT COMMENT ABOUT A 'CLICKING NOISE IN THE LEFT WING' WHICH SHE ALSO HEARD & SAID SOUNDED LIKE METAL CLICKING TOGETHER. GROUND WITNESSES NOTICED A CHANGE IN ENG SOUND. SEVERAL RPRTD AN INTERRUPTION OF ENG PWR, BUT OTHERS (INCLUDING THE S/P) DID NOT RPRT A A PWR LOSS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CRASHED APRX 600 YDS SSE FM THE APCH END OF RWY 29. DRG IMPACT, THE LEFT WING & NOSE WERE EXTENSIVELY DMGD. AFTER IMPACT, THE ACFT TRAVELED ONLY ABOUT 37' BEFORE COMING TO REST. AN EXAM REVEALED THE #4 EXHAUST PIPE FAILED NEXT TO THE WELDED FLANGE THAT ATTACHED THE PIPE TO THE EXHAUST PORT. THE FRACTURES WERE DISCOLORED BY EXHAUST GASES & PEENED BY REPEATED CTC WITH THE MATING SURFACES, MAKING EVALUATION DIFFICULT. MUCH OF THE FRACTURE WAS 90 DEG TO THE PIPE SURFACE (TYPICAL OF FATIGUE). THE FLANGE HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY REPAIRED BY PUTTING A SLEEVE OF MATERIAL ARND THE PIPE & WELDING IT TO THE FLANGE. SOME AREAS OF THE REPAIR WELD DID NOT ADHERE TO THE SLEEVE OR FLANGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA088
- Event ID
- 20001213X30087
- Case number
- LAX87FA088
- 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: 38be481204793c53eeebc62b1540b9b302417185f35c18a92132992302eb8abf; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:15:34.326Z.