LAX84FA071 · Piper PA-24-250
Aviation Unlimited Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Gillespie Field (SEE) to San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84FA071
- 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-24-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N6295T
- Operator
- Aviation Unlimited
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gillespie Field (SEE), San Diego, CATo San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 · Estimated position: the centre of Oceanside, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE PLT RECEIVED A WX BRIEFING & WAS ADVISED TO EXPECT IFR CONDITIONS IN THE VICINITY OF OCEANSIDE, CA & THAT MODERATE TURBULENCE EXISTED BELOW 20,000 FT. AFTER TAKEOFF, HE OBTAINED AN IFR CLEARANCE TO CLIMB & CRUISE AT 6000 FT. AT ABOUT 2005 PST, ATC LOST RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WITH THE ACFT. LATER, THE ACFT WAS FOUND WHERE IT HAD CRASHED IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, ABOUT 1/5 MI FROM WHERE THE LAST TRANSPONDER REPLY WAS NOTED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED BOTH OUTER WING PANELS, THE RIGHT STABILATOR & THE VERTICAL STABILIZER HAD SEPARATED & WERE FOUND 130 TO 612 FT FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE. ALSO, THE REMAINDER OF THE EMPENNAGE HAD SEPARATE & WAS 31 FT FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE & THE BOTTOM SECTION OF THE FUSELAGE & ROTATING BEACON WERE 823 FT AWAY. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE MAIN WRECKAGE HAD IMPACTEDIN A NEAR VERTICAL DESCENT. ALL SEPARATED PARTS HAD EVIDENCE OF OVERLOAD FAILURE. PERSONNEL NEAR THE ACCIDENT SITE REPORTED "SHAFTS OF HEAVY RAIN." AT APRX 2018, A CESSNA 210 PLT RPTD HEAVY RAIN ABOUT 1 MI NORTH OF THE ACCIDENT SITE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84FA071
- Event ID
- 20001214X45100
- Case number
- LAX84FA071
- 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 1983-11-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c288a619421b14dbae436abd4413fc67326ae4ded326ec5151277cbd31e70549; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:49:57.652Z.