LAX83FA371 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water
From HWP · Hayward, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA371
- 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
- 1 · 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
Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N6599L
- Operator
- Fred Nediffer
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From HWP · Hayward, 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE IN HILLY TERRAIN. DEBRIS WAS SCATTERED FOR ABOUT 100 FT BUT THE ACFT DID NOT TRAVEL AFTER INITIAL IMPACT. THE FUEL TANKS WERE RUPTURED AND NO FUEL REMAINED. THE SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES SAID NO ODOR OF FUEL WAS NOTED WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT THE SCENE. THE ACFT WRECKAGE WAS MISSING FOR ABOUT 2 DAYS. THE PLTS WIFE LAST SAWHIM ON 7/30 AT 2300 HOURS PDT. HE REPORTEDLY LEFT HOME THAT NIGHT OR EARLY THE NEXT MORNING. WHEN HE DID NOT RETURN ON 7/31 THE WIFE REPORTED HIM MISSING. HIS CAR WAS FOUND AT HAYWARD AIR TERMINAL, CA. THERE ARE NO KNOWN WITNESSES TO THE ACCIDENT. THE ACFT WRECKAGE WAS FOUND BY A RANCHER WHO WAS CHECKING CATTLE ON HIS PROPERTY. NO DISCREPANCIES IN THE AIRFRAME OR ENGINE WERE UNCOVERED IN THE INVESTIGATION. THE WIFE SAID HER HUSBAND HAD BEEN DEPRESSED DUE TO BUSINESS. SHE SAID HE HAD THREATENED SUICIDE IN THE PAST BUT SHE DID NOT BELIEVE HE WOULD TAKE ANY ACTION IN THAT REGARD. AN AUTOPSY AND TOXICOLOGICAL TESTS REVEALED NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA371
- Event ID
- 20001214X43782
- Case number
- LAX83FA371
- 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: 300318c4b00675dd2d910877edb4b8eb0b41c16ec0514f109fffd18490327a98; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:25:33.323Z.