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LAX86FA007 · Piper PA-28-151

8 Oct 1985 · Payson, AZ, United States

Warrior Enterprises Piper PA-28-151 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Falcon Field (FFZ) to Holbrook Municipal Airport (P14)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX86FA007
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

Piper PA-28-151

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
N44207
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa, AZTo Holbrook Municipal Airport (P14), Holbrook, 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
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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Remedial action, not performed
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
  • Pilot in command › Spiral, inadvertent
  • Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, attempted

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

NTSB narrative

THE PASSENGER HAD A 10:00 MEDICAL APPOINTMENT AT THE DESTINATION AROT ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT. THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED, RECENTLY CERTIFICATED PVT PLT, REQUESTED AND RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING FOR A PROPOSED VFR FLT AT 7500 FT MSL FROM MESA TO HOLBROOK, AZ. THE WEATHER BRIEFING WAS ADEQUATE FOR THE FLT. THE PLT ENCOUNTERED A LOCALIZED SEVERE WEATHER PHENOMONA WHICH INCLUDED CUMULUS BUILD-UPS, CLOUDS DOWN TO THE GROUND, RAIN AND GUSTY SURFACE WINDS. WITNESSES AT THE ACCIDENT SITE REPORTED HEARING THE ACFT AND THE IMPACT SOUNDS, BUT COULD NOT FIND THE ACFT WRECKAGE 'UNTIL THE CLOUDS LIFTED.' THE ACFT IMPACTED THE SIDE OF A CLIFF-LIKE MOUNTAIN FEATURE AT THE 7360 FOOT MSL LEVEL IN A 31 DEGREE DESCENT ANGLE IN A 118 DEGREE RIGHT ROLL.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX86FA007
Event ID
20001214X38044
Case number
LAX86FA007
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: d11532e352e0bdcf1e493f515b05c5db18b350aaae6dcc7337f33046ecb6b458; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:48:53.147Z.