LAX88FA045 · Cessna 441
Cessna 441 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From North Island Naval Air Station-Halsey Field (NZY) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's flight rules. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA045
- 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
- 2 · 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 441
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 441
- 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
- N2484B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Island Naval Air Station-Halsey Field (NZY), San Diego, CATo Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), Palm Springs, 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 Narrative disagrees
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 441 OPERATED BY THE USCS COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN WHILE ON A AUTHORIZED NIGHT TACTICAL FLIGHT. THE COPILOT DID NOT MEET THE CURRENCY STANDARDS AS REQUIRED BY USCS AND WAS NOT QUALIFIED IN THE ACFT. THE FLIGHT ORIGINATED DURING THE DAYLIGHT HOURS AND CONTINUED TO ASTRONOMICAL TWILIGHT. THE PILOTS DID NOT DARK ADAPT PREVIOUS TO THE NIGHT CONDITIONS. DARK ADAPTION WAS IMPEDED BY FLIGHT THROUGH VARIOUS LIGHT CONDITIONS CREATED BY TERRAIN AND AMBIENT LIGHT LEVELS. WITH NIGHT VISION IMPEDED THE PILOT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DINSTINGUISH RELIEF OF THE TERRAIN. THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A SMALL RIDGE THAT ABRUPTLY ROSE 300 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA045
- Event ID
- 20001213X32542
- Case number
- LAX88FA045
- 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 1987-11-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 300fd3a8361006d2873144df6896c48ed0a6bba139b803266c84c35c277d2dab; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:54:31.209Z.