LAX06GA287 · North American OV-10A
California Dept of Forestry and Fire Protection North American OV-10A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV) to Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06GA287
- 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
- Government
- 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
North American OV-10A
- Aircraft type
- North American OV-10
- 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
- N419DF
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV), Porterville, CATo Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV), Porterville, 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Low altitude flight/maneuver, performed
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane impacted rising mountainous terrain in a box-like canyon while performing mission-related low altitude aerial surveillance. The pilot was under contract to fly California Department of Forestry (CDF) personnel over an area where three fires had occurred and to search for newly developing fires. During the 14-minute-long flight, the pilot proceeded to the designated area and commenced providing his observer-crewmember with a viewing opportunity. The pilot flew up and down the canyon's drainage area, which was surrounded by higher elevation terrain. Witnesses initially observed the airplane flying 1,000 to 1,500 feet above ground level (agl). Subsequently, the airplane was observed flying 100 to 150 feet agl. Seconds before the crash, a witness located 3/4-mile downslope from the accident site observed the airplane proceeding over progressively higher elevation terrain while flying between 400 to 600 feet agl, and with its nose pitched upward at a 40-degree angle. Another witness about 1/2-mile downslope from the accident site reported hearing airplane engine noise consistent with high rpm, the sound of a crash, and the sound of a falling tree followed by an explosion. The airplane impacted 125-foot-tall trees on 25- to 40-degree upsloping terrain, fragmented, and was destroyed by the post impact fire. Wreckage from the airframe and all six propeller blades were examined on the 6,240-foot mean sea level mountainside. The turboprop engines were subsequently recovered and torn down. A plethora of evidence was found consistent with rotational operation at high power followed by sudden stoppage. No evidence of any preimpact airframe or engine malfunction was observed. CDF had published a restriction specifying that the accident airplane not be flown lower than 500 feet agl during missions. The restriction document was found in the airplane wreckage. Additionally, CDF had not authorized the pilot to fly missions at any time below 500 feet agl.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain adequate terrain clearance while maneuvering over rising terrain in a box canyon. Also causal was the pilot's failure to adhere to procedures/directives regarding minimum altitude requirements.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06GA287
- Event ID
- 20060916X01351
- Case number
- LAX06GA287
- 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: c2ae9f8feeec5b4be9bce2b2ca486135b1cd2257debf62b6837fdb9647620843; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:34:12.720Z.