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LAX87LA285 · Cessna 172P

28 Jul 1987 · Kernville, CA, United States

Channel Island Aviation Cessna 172P · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB) to Kern Valley Airport (L05)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX87LA285
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
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

Cessna 172P

Aircraft type
Cessna 172
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
N52331
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB), Paso Robles, CATo Kern Valley Airport (L05), Kernville, 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 · VFR go-around
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING A SOLO INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, THE STUDENT PLT WAS ATTEMPTING A LANDING WITH A 6-10 KNOT CROSSWIND. WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH WITH FULL FLAPS AND PWR OFF, THE PLT STATED THAT OVER THE THRESHOLD AT APRX 10 FT AGL IN THE FLARE CONFIGURATION, A GUST OF WIND RAISED THE RIGHT WING AND THE ACFT DRIFTED TO THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RWY. THE PLT ADDED FULL PWR AND RETRACTED THE FLAPS TO GO-AROUND, HOWEVER, THE ACFT'S LANDING GEAR CAUGHT ON A BARB WIRE FENCE AND THE ACFT NOSED OVER COLLIDING WITH THE TERRAIN.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX87LA285
Event ID
20001213X31572
Case number
LAX87LA285
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: 24d01c0115a51cfdb970579d7c7a4f6c3e0e9cbda1cc54b72af5f9ee686597c0; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:47:04.265Z.