LAX87FA281 · Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Monterey Regional Airport (MRY)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA281
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N82793
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo 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
- Approach · IFR final 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft handling, improper
- Pilot in command › Became lost/disoriented, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Monterey, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS RADAR VECTORED TO THE FINAL APPROACH FOR AN ILS LANDING. AS THE AIRCRAFT APPROACHED THE FINAL APPROACH FIX THE CONTROLLER CLEARED THE AIRCRAFT FOR THE APPROACH AND INSTRUCTED THE PILOT TO CONTACT THE TOWER. THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED THE INSTRUCTION THEN STATED THAT HE WAS STARTING A GO-AROUND. APPROXIMATELY 30 SECONDS LATER THERE WAS AN UNINTELLIGIBLE RADIO TRANSMISSION FROM THE AIRCRAFT. THIS TRANSMISSION WAS FOLLOWED BY A CALL FROM THE PILOT STATING, 'SEVEN NINER THREE IN TROUBLE'. THIS TRANSMISSION WAS FOLLOWED 16 SECONDS LATER BY, 'I HAVE I HAVE AN EMERGENCY BACK HERE'. THE CONTROLLER HAD NOTICED AN ASCENT 400 FEET ABOVE THE ASSIGNED ALTITUDE THEN THE RADAR WENT INTO COAST. A WITNESS IN A BOAT IN THE VICINITY OF THE ACCIDENT OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT DIVE OUT OF A CLOUD AND COLLIDE WITH THE WATER.
Probable cause
LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, BY THE PILOT, WHILE EXCUTING A MISSED APPROACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA281
- Event ID
- 20001213X31547
- Case number
- LAX87FA281
- 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: 1485dd3044dd809b84211e11d68ef18943ab648fb957057f55b588780b6101a7; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:03:46.638Z.