LAX06LA246 · Cessna 177B
Anderson Aviation Cessna 177B · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) to Hana Airport (HNM)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA246
- 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
Cessna 177B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N30652
- Operator
- Anderson Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, HITo Hana Airport (HNM), Hana, HI
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Radar data, obtained from the U.S. Navy's Fleet Area Control & Surveillance Facility (FACSFAC), revealed that the airplane departed HNL and proceeded east toward Molokai. According to the radar data, the aircraft maintained an approximate altitude of 5,000 feet mean sea level (msl) and an approximate groundspeed of 90 knots for 23 minutes prior to the accident. Radar data shows the aircraft passed the Kalaupapa peninsula eastbound, and then changed directions several times, but still maintained altitude and groundspeed. At 20:53:06, the radar return depicted the airplane at 5,100 feet msl approximately 1 mile north of the shoreline near Kapailoa Point. The next radar return, at 20:53:16, depicted the airplane at 3,700 feet msl with a 50-knot groundspeed, northeast of the previous return. At 20:53:28, the airplane's radar return depicted it at 1,400 feet msl with a 30-knot groundspeed, southwest of the last return. At 20:53:40, the radar return denoted the airplane at 200 feet msl in the same location. The last return was obtained at 20:53:57 with an altitude of 0 feet msl, at 21:11:19 north latitude and 156:53:54 west longitude. The FACSFAC radar data revealed two lines of heavy returns over the island of Molokai. According to radar facility personnel, the lines depicted areas of heavy precipitation. Witnesses located at a private residence near Kapailoa Point reported that it was very dark, there were thick clouds in the area, and it was raining. A witness observed airplane lights descending from the base of the clouds at a very rapid descent rate. The witness noted that the airplane lights were wobbling (rotating one over the other) and the engine was revving loudly. The airplane lights disappeared behind a ridgeline and the witness did not observe impact. The witness added that the weather had been clear earlier in the evening, but the rainy weather had moved in rapidly and then dissipated shortly after the accident. To date, no aircraft wreckage has been recovered, therefore the reason for the loss of aircraft control was not determined.
Probable cause
Loss of aircraft control during cruise flight for undetermined reasons. Clouds, rain, and dark night conditions were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA246
- Event ID
- 20060801X01068
- Case number
- LAX06LA246
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2006-07-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 15617a60c9b8a7484f54662713835552974e193e95b4f16dd166ea1954255123; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:07:28.444Z.