LAX84FA129 · YAPLE, Robert G. VARI-EZE
YAPLE, Robert G. VARI-EZE · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU) to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84FA129
- 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
- Unknown
YAPLE, Robert G. VARI-EZE
- Aircraft type
- Yaple Robert VARI-EZE
- 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
- N1050G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NMTo Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Stall
- 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, initiated
- Wing › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DESPITE 2 WX BRIEFINGS FORECASTING MARGINAL VFR CONDITIONS WITH REPORTS OF ICING, THE PLT DEPARTED ON A FLT IN THE NON-IFR EQUIPPED ACFT. JUST PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, TRANSMISSIONS BETWEEN THE PLT & ATC INDICATED THAT THE ACFT WAS IN A SNOW SHOWER BETWEEN CLOUD LAYERS AT 13,500 FT & WAS ATTEMPTING TO CLIMB TO VFR CONDITIONS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT BROKE UP IN FLT & THE WRECKAGE WAS DISTRIBUTED OVER A 2 MI AREA. NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND OF A MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE PRIOR TO THE IN-FLT BREAKUP. A METEOROLOGICAL SUMMARY DETERMINED THAT ICING OF AT LEAST MODERATE INTENSITY WOULD HAVE OCCURRED FROM 6000 TO 14,000 FT. THE PLT HAD BEEN AWAY FROM HOME FOR OVER 2 WEEKS & HAD EXPERIENCED SEVERAL WX RELATED DELAYS IN THE PREVIOUS 2 DAYS. A FRIEND REPORTED THAT HE WAS SCHEDULED TO RETURN TO WORK & THAT THE PASSENGER(HIS SON) HAD TO RETURN TO SCHOOL THE FOLLOWING DAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84FA129
- Event ID
- 20001214X38586
- Case number
- LAX84FA129
- 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: 715c085f2004a57b1385f24e2a27ffaaab518906f8b5e7709bdec1d0ddd20918; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:42:23.686Z.