LAX87MA068 · Piper PA-28-181
Aero Flight Center Piper PA-28-181 and Mooney M-20K · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87MA068
- 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 · Piper PA-28-181
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N7646F
- Operator
- Aero Flight Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, CATo not recorded
- 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 · turn to reverse direction
- 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 · Mooney M-20K
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M-20
- 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
- N231LY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hesperia Airport (L26), Hesperia, CATo Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
- 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 · turn to reverse direction
- 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
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › 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 PIPER PA-28-161, N7646F, AND A MOONEY M-20K, N231LY, COLLIDED NEAR PADER INTERSECTION ABT 16 MILES SOUTHWEST OF LGB AIRPORT. BOTH AIRPLANES WERE CONDUCTING INSTRUMENT FLIGHT TRAINING AND NONE OF THE OCCUPANTS WERE INJURED. N231LY HAD CONDUCTED AN ILS APPROACH TO LGB AND WAS EXECUTING A VFR WINGS LEVEL CLIMBING MISSED APPROACH TOWARDS THE SUN AND N7646F WAS EXECUTING A RIGHT PARTIAL PANEL TURN AT THE TIME OF THE COLLISION. BOTH AIRPLANES COLLIDED NEAR HEAD-ON. N7646F'S LEFT OUTBD WING PANEL STRUCK THE MIDSPAN SECTION OF N231LY'S LEFT WING. THE CFI ABOARD N7646F SAW N231LY AND IMMEDIATELY EXECUTED A NOSE DOWN MNVR. THE CFI ABOARD N231LY DID NOT EXECUTE AN EVASIVE MANEUVER. VMC PREVAILED AT THE TIME, BUT A SMOG LAYER EXISTED. AFTER THE COLLISION N7646F LANDED AT SNA AND N231LY LANDED AT LGB WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87MA068
- Event ID
- 20001213X35385
- Case number
- LAX87MA068
- 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: dcdc993f773bc34f9d98476db5262511e3fcad1e15e8bcbe32dfacf67ecde1e5; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:39:07.965Z.