LAX84FA113 · Piper PA 24-260
Piper PA 24-260 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From CLX · Calexico, CA to L67 · Rialto, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84FA113
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA 24-260
- 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
- N8761P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From CLX · Calexico, CATo L67 · Rialto, 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
- 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 object
- 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
- Electrical tower
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, improper
- Pilot in command › Lack of total instrument time
- Pilot in command › Low pass, performed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A ELECTRICAL POWER LINE TOWER AT NIGHT DURING IMC WEATHER. THE TOWER WAS STRUCK AT 40 FT AGL. THEPLT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING FOR THIS FLT AND VFR FLT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED. NO FLT PLAN WAS FILED. WITESSES HEARD THE ACFT FLY OVER AT AN ESTIMATED 200-300 FT IN DENSE FOG AND RAIN. WITNESSES HEARD THE CRASH AND CALLED THE SHERIFF WHO RESPONDED AND FOUND THE WRECKAGE SCATTERED BELOW THE TOWER FOR A DISTANCE OF ABOUT 300 FT. THE PLT DID NOT HAVE AN INSTRUMENT RATING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84FA113
- Event ID
- 20001214X45317
- Case number
- LAX84FA113
- 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 1983-12-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4b1fe858a139b336b3b1887e22f646f49288699c042294125cd0710965ba01fb; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:43:00.321Z.