LAX06LA056 · Boeing B75N1
Boeing B75N1 and Cessna 172A · Accident: midair collision during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA056
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Boeing B75N1
- Aircraft type
- Boeing B75
- 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
- N65696
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Corona Municipal Airport (AJO), Corona, CATo AJO
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172A
- 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
- N7187T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Corona, CATo AJO
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Pilots of both aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A Boeing B75N1 (Stearman) and a Cessna 172 collided in mid-air while both were on final approach for landing at a non-towered airport. The Stearman was practicing takeoffs and landings and was on its third circuit and already established on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern. The Cessna was returning to the airport. The Cessna pilot reported hearing the Stearman pilot radio that he (the Stearman) was entering the traffic pattern. The Cessna pilot further reported that he entered the downwind, but did not see the Stearman, nor did he hear any further radio calls from the Stearman. The Stearman pilot reported that while on short final approach he saw a right wing lifting up from below towards his left wing and attempted to arrest his airplanes' descent; however, the Stearman collided with the top of the Cessna. The Cessna was forced to the ground and rolled to a stop alongside the runway. The Stearman aborted the landing and reentered the pattern after verifying with another airborne pilot that his airplane was structurally intact. The Stearman landed uneventfully. Both pilots reported that the airport was very busy, and that the radio frequency, shared by other local area airports, was congested. Ground witness observed the Stearman on final approach, with the Cessna entering final approach below and behind the Stearman. On short final approach, the Cessna overtook the Stearman and both airplanes collided. One air witness stated that he heard the Stearman pilot making position reports on all legs of the pattern during the approach, and did not hear the Cessna pilot make any radio transmissions.
Probable cause
failure of both pilots to see and avoid each other during traffic pattern operations at a non-towered airport.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA056
- Event ID
- 20051223X02008
- Case number
- LAX06LA056
- 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: 08accb49b056bf4205a953ba1918bf5b58df85981a4d6d1f4103d4c3245cf9dc; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:12:23.229Z.