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LAX87MA018 · Cessna 172N

16 Oct 1986 · Altadena, CA, United States

American Flyers Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route

From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX87MA018
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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Cessna 172N

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
N1048F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO), Santa Monica, 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
En route · cruise
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

  • Altitude › Inadequate
  • Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Atc clearance, improper
  • Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Crew/group briefing, inadequate
  • Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Identification of aircraft on radar, not maintained

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

NTSB narrative

WHILE RTRNG TO SANTA MONICA (SMO) FM A X-COUNTRY, THE PLTS DIVERTED TO VAN NUYS WHEN THE RWY AT SMO WAS CLOSED DUE TO A DISABLED ACFT. AFTER THE RWY WAS REOPENED, THEY FILED AN IFR FLT PLN TO CONT AT 5000' & TKOF AT NGT. DRG DEP, THE AR-3 CTLR PROVIDED RADAR VECTORS (FOR CLNC AT 3000'). AT 1926:39, AR-4 CTLR ACKNOWLEDGED/ACCEPTED AN AUTOMATED HANDOFF VIA AN ARTS-III COMPUTER KEYBOARD ENTRY. AR-3 PROVIDED ADNTL VECTORS TO THE FLT, THE LAST BEING A 080 DEG HDG (AT 1929:12), BUT DIDN'T TELL THE PLTS TO CHG TO AR-4'S FREQ. AT APRX 1933, THE AR-3 & AR-4 CTLRS WERE RELIEVED & BGN BRIEFING THEIR RELIEVING CTLRS. SOON THEREAFTER, THE FLT PASSED OVR THE ASR ANTENNA, THEN WAS DISPLAYED ON THE RADAR SCOPE IN A COAST MODE. IT REAPPEARED WITH A DATA TAG, THAT ERRONEOUSLY INDCD ANOTHER FACILITY HAD CTL OF THE FLT. THE RELIEVING CTLRS SAWTHE FULL DATA BLOCK ON THEIR SCOPES, BUT DISREGARDED IT, DUE TO THE ERRONEOUS CTL SYMBOL. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT HIT MTNS AT THE LAST ASSIGNED ALT OF 3000'. THE CFI HAD JUST MOVED FM FL TO CA & WAS ON HIS 2ND DAY OF EMPLOYMENT IN CA.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX87MA018
Event ID
20001213X35001
Case number
LAX87MA018
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 1986-10-17.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 390f647ab23e8168a7200eea8fec0708a653aef87c69d654fa50190de69a803c; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:22:12.044Z.