LAX02LA268 · Breezy RLU-1A
Breezy RLU-1A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From North Las Vegas Airport (VGT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX02LA268
- 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
- 0 · 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
Breezy RLU-1A
- Aircraft type
- Breezy RLU-1
- 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
- N3184
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), North Las Vegas, NVTo 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
- En route · climb to 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 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While maneuvering around a large rock feature, the airplane entered a blind/box canyon and collided with the rising terrain. The rear seat passenger/pilot had been flying the airplane. The pilot/owner detected downdrafts, and the airplane could not climb fast enough for the diminishing altitude. He only attempted to level the wings and land straight ahead. According to witness statements, the airplane was climbing over rising terrain and had begun to waver. Estimates of the altitude varied from 75 to 100 feet above a parking lot (elevation 3,500 feet), which was approximately 1 1/2 miles below the impact site. Hikers closer to the area had also seen the airplane as it made its approach overhead. They reported that the airplane appeared unstable as it flew up the canyon. They ran over to help and observed fuel leaking from the airplane. The engine had been running until impact, one witness said, but no fire ensued.
Probable cause
the failure of both pilots to maintain an adequate terrain clearance altitude while maneuvering in a canyon.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX02LA268
- Event ID
- 20020913X01604
- Case number
- LAX02LA268
- 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: 6331842acc281ca13ed1f88c93714d9d33a6645679b05ad43b9388a945f31c81; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:35:14.324Z.