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LAX85FA100 · Beech B-35

7 Jan 1985 · Death Valley, CA, United States

Corona Aircraft Beech B-35 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From L66 · Corona, CA to 043 · Carson City, NV

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Event

NTSB case
LAX85FA100
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
4 · 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

Beech B-35

Aircraft type
Beechcraft B-35
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
N8889A
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From L66 · Corona, CATo 043 · Carson City, NV
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 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, intentional
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
  • Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, improper
  • Terrain condition › Mountainous/hilly

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

NTSB narrative

THE PLT GOT AN EXTENDED WX FCST THE DAY PRIOR TO DEPARTURE WHICH INDICATED BKN TO OVC CLOUDS BASED AT ABOUT 8,000 FT FOR THE FIRST PART OF THE TRIP & SCT TO BKN CLOUDS FOR THE LAST HALF. MOUNTAIN AREAS WERE PREDICTED TO BE OBSCURED. PLT WAS ENCOURAGED TO CALL IN THE MORNING FOR A DETAILED UPDATE, HOWEVER, NO RECORD OF ANY CONTACT WAS FOUND. NO FLT PLAN WAS FILED & THE ACFT DEPARTED AT ABOUT 0900 HRS ON AN UNKNOWN ROUTE FOR THE DESTINATION. THE ACFT WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED BY ELT SIGNAL & SEARCH ACFT AT 6,200 FT MSL ON A MOUNTAIN SIDE AT THE END OF A BOX CANYON. A WITNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CANYON (ABOUT 4,000 FT MSL) REPORTED VISIBILITY 100 FT IN FOG & RAIN AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. WX CONDITIONS ALONG THE GENERAL ROUTE OF FLT WERE WORSE THAN THE FCST PLT RECEIVED THE DAY PRIOR, WITH CEILINGS IN 3,000 FT RANGE & TOPS TO 22,000. DESTINATION APRT WAS ONE-QUARTER MILE IN SNOW AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE WX CONDITIONS ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT WERE ACCURATELY REPORTED IN WX INFO AVAILABLE TO THE PLT

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX85FA100
Event ID
20001214X35530
Case number
LAX85FA100
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: f924232d3738bbdcd42282b70774df5cb767d42080092414de460e9a1a7e29df; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:10:44.986Z.