LAX02FA255 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL) to Buchanan Field (CCR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX02FA255
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N7794C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL), So. Lake Tahoe, CATo Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, 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 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 850-hour instrument rated private pilot contacted ground control requesting taxi instructions for departure. The pilot was cleared to taxi to runway 18 and was notified the wind was from 180 degrees at 13 knots, altimeter 30.06 inches, and told to check density altitude. After completing a run-up, the pilot, who was reported to be very familiar with the airport and the route of flight, contacted the tower and requested a straight-out departure over Echo Summit. No distress calls were received from the airplane. The wreckage of the airplane was located in a wooded area approximately 7.2 miles south of the airport at an approximate altitude of 7,432 feet msl, after a post-impact fire sparked a 400-acre forest fire. The airplane impacted trees and the rocky terrain with the wing flaps retracted and the landing gear extended. The wreckage came to rest on a measured heading of 116 degrees magnetic. The density altitude at the accident site was calculated at 8,551 feet. The airplane was found to be 488 pounds below its maximum takeoff weight of 2,650 pounds at the time of departure. No discrepancies or mechanical anomalies were found with the wreckage at the accident site. Flight control continuity was established to all of the flight control surfaces. No mechanical anomalies were noted with the engine during a detailed teardown examination.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to continue the flight into the rising mountainous terrain, and subsequent failure to maintain clearance with the trees. Contributing factors were the rising mountainous terrain, and the high density altitude,
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX02FA255
- Event ID
- 20020828X01466
- Case number
- LAX02FA255
- 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, coordinates. 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: f9c8032905f3b355895273fbe0c698e302a33f38a574793359ec189d015a69aa; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:54:03.519Z.