LAX83FA390 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Palo Alto Airport (PAO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA390
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-181
- 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
- N5698V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Palo Alto Airport (PAO), Palo Alto, 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, initiated
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Santa Rosa, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PLT & A PASSENGER TOOK OFF FROM THE ARPT AT DAWN BEFORE THE CONTROL TOWER WAS IN OPERATION. THE TAKEOFF WAS AT 0549 PDT IN IMC CONDITIONS. SHORTLY AFTER TAKING OFF, THE ACFT CRASHED. ONE WITNESS STATED THAT HE HEARD THE ACFT TAKEOFF 'ON 19', THEN HEARD THE ENG LIKE IT WAS IN A DIVE. ANOTHER WITNESS HEARD THE ACFT FLY OVER HIS HOUSE, THEN TURN AROUND & FLY BACK OVER HIS HOUSE & CRASH. HE STATED THE WX WAS FOGGY, BUT HE COULD SEE RUNWAY LIGHTS ABOUT 400 TO 500 YARDS AWAY. AT 0620 PDT, TOWER PERSONNEL OBSERVED THE WX WAS: 200 FT INDEFINITE CEILING, VISIBILITY 1/2 MI WITH FOG, TEMP 57, DEW POINT 55, WIND CALM. DURING IMPACT, THE ACFT WAS DEMOLISHED & THE WRECKAGE WAS STREWN OVER A PATH 345 FT LONG. A PIECE OF RED LENS WAS FOUND NEAR THE 1ST IMPACT POINT. THERE WAS NO RECORD OF A PREFLT WX BRIEFING OR COMMUNICATION WITH ANY RADIO FACILITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA390
- Event ID
- 20001214X44193
- Case number
- LAX83FA390
- 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: bd2d009f04f8bb47d6be48da5e7d6b06c34ab3a08390094f4ac2d780c490ed9e; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:19:27.852Z.