GAA15CA128 · Beech C23
Beech C23 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) on approach
From Corona Municipal Airport (AJO) to Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA15CA128
- 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
Beech C23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N24022
- Operator
- Ranjiv Priyantha Goonetilleke
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Corona Municipal Airport (AJO), Corona, CATo Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 38 years (built 1977)
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while on final approach for runway 25R during night conditions, the visual approach slope indicator (VASI) was not operational. The pilot stated that he was "too low" during the approach, so he applied full power in an attempt to go-around. The airplane impacted the top of trees about 530 feet east of the runway and then impacted the airport perimeter fence about 380 feet east of the runway.
The pilot reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings.
Probable cause
The pilot failed to maintain clearance from trees while maneuvering to land at night, which resulted in a collision with terrain/objects. A factor contributing to the accident was the lack of oversight by ATC; failing to insure that the fully operational VASI was turned on during the hours of darkness.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA15CA128
- Event ID
- 20150622X32906
- Case number
- GAA15CA128
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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 2015-06-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: daa35196b3696cc7ae2da5e33560711ae4965d5e6007f38332bc543de7803f0c; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:26:43.060Z.