LAX83FA387 · Piper PA-28-151
Piper PA-28-151 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From 775 · Creswell, OR to Hayward Executive Airport (HWD)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA387
- 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
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
- N41576
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 775 · Creswell, ORTo Hayward Executive Airport (HWD), Hayward, 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 · 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT DEPARTED CRESWELL, OR, SOMETIME AFTER 1800 PST ON 3/19/83. AT 2110 PST, THE PLT CONTACTED PORTLAND FLT WATCH BY RADIO & STATED THAT HE WAS OVER ROSEBURG, OR AT 9500 FT. HE REQUESTED PIREPS OF WX OVER THE SISKIYOU MOUNTAINS & INTO THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA. FLT WATCH ADVISED THAT THE MEDFORD, OR WX WAS ESTIMATED 8000 FT OVERCAST, VISIBILITY 10 MI & THAT A PLT HAD REPORTED THAT CONDITIONS FROM REDMOND, OR TO RED BLUFF, CA, AT 9500 FT, WERE CLEAR & SMOOTH. THE PLT REPLIED THAT HE WAS HAVING A SMOOTH RIDE, ON TOP, & THAT THERE WAS 'A LITTLE BIT OF BUILDUPS TO THE WEST.' THERE WERE NO FURTHER TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE ACFT. WHEN THE ACFT DID NOT ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION, A SEARCH WAS INITIATED. IT WAS FOUND BY HIKERS ON 8/15/83 WHERE IT HAD CRASHED IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WHILE IN A STEEP DIVE. AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, SEARCH PERSONNEL COULD NOT GET INTO THE AREA DUE TO LOW CLOUDS, RAIN & SNOW. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT/MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA387
- Event ID
- 20001214X42467
- Case number
- LAX83FA387
- 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: 119ac3e6b39bbca82dab57ef83cc861b1c608fcac7dca97ffe0bdf4ebf5dbf88; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:03:38.424Z.