LAX82FUJ32 · Beech 58
Valley National Bank Beech 58 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Phoenix, AZ to Tucson, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82FUJ32
- 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
Beech 58
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N184VB
- Operator
- Valley National Bank
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix, AZTo Tucson, AZ
- 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 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Fatigue
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Tucson, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT DEPARTED PHOENIX AT 0045 FOR THE THIRD LEG OF A SIX LEG BANK RUN BETWEEN PHOENIX & TUCSON INTL ARPT. HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH THE PHOENIX TRACON DURING DEPARTURE & WAS RELEASED AT THE TOLTEC INTERSECTION (V16) AT 5,500 FT. THERE WAS NO FURTHER RADIO CONTACT WITH THE ACFT. BOTH TUCSON TRACON & TOWER WERE SHUT DOWN AFTER MIDNIGHT. THE ACFT OVERFLEW TUCSON INTL ARPT & IMPACTED A MOUNTAIN AT 5,200 FT MSL IN A SLIGHT NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE (2-3 DEG). A STRAIGHT LINE DRAWN FROM THE TOLTEC INTERSECTION THROUGH TUCSON INTL ARPT INTO THE SANTA RITA MOUNTAINS, SPECIFICALLY MT. FAGAN, WILL LOCATE THE APPROXIMATELY SITE OF THE CRASH. THE PLT WAS UP BY 0815 ON 3/15/82. LATER IN THE DAY HE FLEW ANOTHER BE-58 SORTIE (1630-1730) GIVING A PILOT CHECK-OUT FOR A COMMERCIAL OPERATOR. HE THEN RETURNED HOME FOR SUPPER & FINALLY REPORTED FOR NORMAL DUTY AT 2130.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82FUJ32
- Event ID
- 20020917X02301
- Case number
- LAX82FUJ32
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 5c2153c5782e746c24263b3cf366f38acc348973efb1e1567449edc19e838120; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:34:55.876Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the pilot "departed Phoenix at 0045 for the third leg of a six leg bank run between Phoenix & Tucson Intl Arpt" and overflew Tucson International Airport before the crash.