LAX87FA057 · Cessna 172N
Air Mobile Cessna 172N and de Havilland GIPSY MOTH DH.60G GIPSY MOTH · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA057
- 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N2371E
- Operator
- Air Mobile
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Whiteman Airport (WHP), PACOIMA, CATo Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, 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 pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · de Havilland GIPSY MOTH DH.60G GIPSY MOTH
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland GIPSY MOTH DH 60G
- 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
- N1510V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, CATo Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, 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 pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 172 & A DEHAVILLAND GIPSY MOTH COLLIDED AT 150 FT. AGL WHILE ON SHORT FINAL APPROACH TO THE UNCONTROLLED ARPT. ON BASE LEG THE PLT FLYING THE MOTH FAILED TO OBSERVE & YIELD THE RIGHT OF WAY TO THE CESSNA WHICH WAS ALREADY ESTABLISHED ONTHE FINAL APPROACH COURSE. THE MOTH'S PLT TURNED ON TO FINAL APPROACH SLIGHTLY IN FRONT OF & ABOVE THE CESSNA. BETWEEN 5 - 10 SEC. LATER THE MOTH'S PROPELLER SLICED INTO & PARTIALLY SEVERED AN OUTBOARD PORTION OF THE CESSNA'S RIGHT WING. THE CESSNA PLT HAD BROADCAST HIS POSITION WHILE IN THE DOWNWIND, BASE & FINAL APPROACH LEGS OF THE LEFT-HAND TRAFFIC PATTERN. HOWEVER, THE ARPT HAD A PUBLISHED RIGHT-HAND PATTERN. THE MOTH WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH A COMMUNICATION RADIO.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA057
- Event ID
- 20001213X35186
- Case number
- LAX87FA057
- 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: f41d6cd9f88c5cfd7bba938ecbfb6b4d73a412f0d671903a02444787fb928ea6; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:42:24.291Z.