LAX87FA200 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Stockton Metropolitan Airport (SCK) to Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA200
- 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
Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N93495
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Stockton Metropolitan Airport (SCK), Stockton, CATo Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG), Flagstaff, AZ
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Descent, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT & HIS WIFE DESIRED TO RETURN TO THEIR FLAGSTAFF, AZ, HOME FOLLOWING A WEEKEND AT STOCKTON, CA., & THEY DEPARTED SCK IN VFR WEATHER CONDITIONS. THE WEATHER AT THE DESTINATION ARPT HAD BEEN BELOW VFR MINIMUMS ALL MORNING & IT WAS FORECAST TO REMAIN POOR THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT. THE PLT DID NOT REQUEST A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, & HE DID NOT REQUEST WEATHER FROM ANY FACILITY WHILE ENROUTE. AFTER FLYING FOR ABOUT 3.5 HRS & APPROACHING FLG, IFR WEATHER WAS ENCOUNTERED. DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT WAS AN HR PAST SUNSET & THE PLT WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED HE ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT. THE FLG CONTROLLER REPORTED HE NEVER SAW THE ACFT & HE NEVER ISSUED THE PLT A CLEARANCE TO ENTER THE CONTROL ZONE. THE PLT COLLIDED WITH TREES & TERRAIN 4 MI WEST OF FLG WHILE DESCENDING AT A 60 DEG ANGLE IN A 40 DEG BANK. INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO PRE-IMPACT MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT ENG. DUE TO THE ACFT DAMAGE, THE FLT CONTROL CONTINUITY COULD NOT BE ESTABLISHED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA200
- Event ID
- 20001213X35187
- Case number
- LAX87FA200
- 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 1986-11-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7e797be6e03881936a704e7134d94647ee4bcdb872de44cb582dc3db854b83f6; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:20:58.833Z.