LAX83FUM06 · Cessna 172RG
Cessna 172RG · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Zamperini Field (TOA) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FUM06
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172RG
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N4789R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, 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
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED ON SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND DURING A FISH SPOTTING FLT ON A DARK NIGHT. THESE FLTS ARE USUALLY FLOWN AT AN ALT OF 1000-2000 FT AGL. A NAVY WITNESS ON THE ACCIDENT ISLAND SAID THE CEILING WAS ZERO AND THE VISIBILITY ABOUT 200 YARDS AT THE ACCIDENT SITE ABOUT 40 MINUTES BEFORE THE ESTIMATED TIME OF THE CRASH. THE PILOT WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED AND THE ACFT DESTROYED IN THE ACCIDENT. THE ACFT WAS NOT FOUND UNTIL 1415 HOURS ON JUNE 5. THE PILOT WAS HOSPITALIZED UNTIL JUNE 11 AND DOES NOT REMEMBER THE ACCIDENT. THE ELEVATION OF THE ACCIDENT SITE IS 1060 FT MSL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FUM06
- Event ID
- 20001214X43384
- Case number
- LAX83FUM06
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1983-06-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7dee1f119a3e528329ec0e5824b72291bd441214fb6fe3f2107612681e2d4660; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:55:38.747Z.