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LAX83LA272 · Piper PA-38-112

4 Jun 1983 · Temecula, CA, United States

Airmech Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing

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Event

NTSB case
LAX83LA272
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
Visual Meteorological Cond

Piper PA-38-112

Aircraft type
Piper PA-38
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
N2334V
Operator
Airmech
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Airport personnel › Other airport/runway maintenance, improper
  • Dual student › Visual lookout, inadequate
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, inadequate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Temecula, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE STUDENT & INSTRUCTOR (CFI) WERE ON A DUAL INSTRUCTIONAL FLT IN PREPARATION FOR THE STUDENT'S 1ST SOLO FLT. AFTER RETURNING FROM FLT IN THE LOCAL AREA, THEY ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN TO LAND ON RWY 12. DURING A FINAL APCH TO LAND, THE STUDENT FLEW THE ACFT TO CROSS OVER THE THRESHOLD AT ABOUT 3 FT AGL & LAND ABOUT 200 FT DOWN THE RWY. AS THE ACFT WAS CROSSING THE THRESHOLD, THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR STRUCK THE TOP 1 FT OF A MOUND OF DIRT. THE GEAR FAILED. DURING THE LANDING THE ACFT WENT OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY. THE CFI REPORTED THAT DURING DEPARTURE, THEY MADE AN INTERSECTION TAKEOFF, AND THUS, DID NOT OBSERVE THE MOUND OF DIRT ADJACENT TO THE END OF THE RWY. THE CFI ALSO SAID THE MOUND WAS THE SAME COLOR AS THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN & WAS VIRTUALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE. MOUNDS OF DIRT HAD BEEN PLACED AROUND THE APCH END OF RWY 12 IN PREPARATION OF REPAIRS. THE MOUNDS WERE ABOUT 4 FT TALL.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX83LA272
Event ID
20001214X43399
Case number
LAX83LA272
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: a9051684e94f48209b1f441fcbc6e7c9c012ab1770a3729692e3829bf223a96e; retrieved 2026-09-23T22:03:39.479Z.