LAX86LA117 · Cessna 172P
Cessna 172P · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL) to Ontario International Airport (ONT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA117
- 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
- N55386
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, CATo Ontario International Airport (ONT)
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- In-flight planning/decision › Improper
- Other crewmember › Planned approach, not identified
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE OWNER/PLT (PIC) WAS ON A FLT FOR NIGHT & INSTRUMENT CURRENCY REQUIREMENTS. HE WAS FLYING THE ACFT FROM THE LEFT FRONT SEAT WHILE A COMMERCIAL PLT (CP) WAS OCCUPYING THE RGT FRONT SEAT. DRG AN ILS RWY 26L FINAL APCH AT ONTARIO, CA, THE PIC & CP DISCUSSED A CONSTANT 'ON GLIDE SLOPE' INDICATION & ELECTED TO MAKE A LOCALIZER ONLY APCH. THE CP MISTAKENLYSELECTED AN INCORRECT APCH PLATE & ADVISED THE PIC THAT THE MIN DSCNT ALT (MDA) WAS 1060'. THE ACTUAL MDA FOR THE APCH WAS 1240'. WHILE THEY WERE DISCUSSING THE ALT, THE ACFT DSCNDD & STRUCK ELEC TRANSMISSION LINES AT AN ELEV OF 992'. THE ACFT BECAME ENTANGLED IN THE LINES & REMAINED SUSPENDED FOR 4 HRS BEFORE THE PLTS WERE RESCUED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA117
- Event ID
- 20001213X32886
- Case number
- LAX86LA117
- 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 1986-02-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b492edf5ab926907a41232a61044d57a2d4dfba0e51ff1f9bc95b433bfaaff7a; retrieved 2026-09-23T15:02:49.981Z.