LAX83FUG07 · Cessna 172N
Pioneer Aviation Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) to Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FUG07
- 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
- 3 · 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
Cessna 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N3579E
- Operator
- Pioneer Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), PALMS SPRINGS, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, 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
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND HIS PASSENGERS HAD FLOWN FROM VAN NUYS, CA TO PALM SPRING, CA DURING THE AFTERNOON. AFTER ARRIVAL, THEY SPENT SEVERAL HOURS ON THE GROUND. AT 1740, THE PILOT CALLED A FSS TO OBTAIN A WEATHER BRIEFING FOR A FLIGHT TO CONCORD, CA. DURING THE BRIEFING, HE WAS ADVISED THAT VFR FLIGHT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED. THE FORCAST INDICATED DETERIORATING WEATHER CONDITIONS DUE TO AN APPROACHING WEATHER SYSTEM OFF THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA. AT 2153 PST, THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED WESTBOUND. RADAR SERVICES WERE TERMINATED 8 MI WEST OF PALM SPRINGS AND NO FURTHER RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WERE MADE. THE AIRCRAFT FAILED TO REACH ITS DESTINATION AND A SEARCH WAS INITIATED PROGRESS OF THE SEARCH WAS DELAYED DUE TO THUNDERSTORMS. THE AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND WHERE IT HAD STRUCK STEEP TERRAIN IN CANYON FOOTHILLS AT THE 3400 FT LEVEL. AN INVESTIGATION INDICATED THE PLANE CRASHED IN A SLIGHTLY NOSE LOW, LEFT BANK ATTITUDE. NO PREIMPACT, MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WERE FOUND.THE ONTARIO, CA WX WAS 2200 BROKEN, 4 MI VIS WITH FOG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FUG07
- Event ID
- 20020917X04810
- Case number
- LAX83FUG07
- 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 1982-11-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e384847b00db9c45517bc86807811768dafe8c5dd051f9de8f4aadde890a1f2f; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:27:07.638Z.