LAX88FA061 · Piper PA-11
Piper PA-11 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From L32 · Oceanside, CA to L32
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA061
- 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
Piper PA-11
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-11
- 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
- N4767H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L32 · Oceanside, CATo L32
- 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
- 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
- Check pilot › Supervision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE 2 PLTS TOOK OFF ON AN INSTRUCTIONAL FLT WHICH WAS TO BE A BIENNIAL FLT REVIEW FOR THE ACFT OWNER. DURING THE FLT, THE PLTS FLEW TO A DIRT STRIP ON A SADDLEBACK BETWEEN 2 MTN PEAKS NEAR SAN MARCOS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT STRUCK A BOULDER & CRASHED NEAR THE NORTHEAST END OF THE STRIP. THERE WERE NO KNOWN WITNESSES TO THE ACDNT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE ACFT HAD STRUCK THE BOULDER AFTER THE PLTS MADE A LOW PASS OVER THE STRIP ON A NORTHEASTERLY HDG. THE ACFT CAME TO REST ABOUT 30 FT NORTHEAST OF THE BOULDER WITH EXTENSIVE DAMAGE. THE PROP BLADES CONTAINED CHORDWISE SCORING & MASSIVE SMEARING OR LEADING EDGE DAMAGE. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS EVIDENT. AN EXAM OF THE RWY REVEALED NO INDCN OF THE ACFT TOUCHING DOWN BEFORE IMPACT. EVIDENCE WAS INCONCLUSIVE AS TO WHICH PLT WAS MANIPULATING THE CONTROLS WHEN THE ACDNT OCCURRED. ON THIS FLT, THE OWNER WAS CONSIDERED TO BE THE PLT-IN-COMMAND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA061
- Event ID
- 20001213X32548
- Case number
- LAX88FA061
- 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: e5a47fcc1cf7eb1ca7ca32c638d3a548ac5bd42f687111941bdc675add04849b; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:53:27.409Z.