Hawaiian Airlines Flight 70
Airbus A321-271N and Cessna 172N · Incident: air traffic event on approach
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- OPS24LA004
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- Airline
- 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 · Airbus A321-271N
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A321
- 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
- N216HA
- Operator
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, HITo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2018)
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- Air traffic event
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · 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
- N24CV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA), Santa Barbara, CATo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 46 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Air traffic event
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Hawaiian Airlines flight 70 (HAL70), N2165HA, an Airbus A321, and a Textron Aviation, Inc. C172N, N24CV, were involved in a near mid air collision (NMAC) over the point where runway 30 and the final approach path for runway 26L intersect at Long Beach (Daugherty Field) Airport (LGB). At the time of the incident, the local control 1 (LC1), local assist, and ground control positions were combined to the LC1 position in the LGB air traffic control tower and staffed by a single certified professional controller. According to ATC transcripts and a post-- event interview, the LC1 controller turned N24CV on a base leg to runway 26L and cleared N24CV to land on 26L when the aircraft was approximately one mile from the runway. About this same time, the LC1 controller also cleared HAL70 to land on runway 30, when the flight was on a four-mile final. The LC1 controller did not realize that N24CV continued another half mile before starting their base turn, an event which led to both aircraft arriving at the airport at nearly the same time. In the three minutes leading to the incident, the LC1 controller received multiple calls on the ground control frequency from aircraft requesting push-back. He also initiated a call to the Traffic Management Unit (TMU) to request a release for another aircraft. These events distracted the LC1 controller from the local control operation at the time of the incident. This duty prioritization was not consistent with guidance contained in FAA Order JO 7110.65AA, Air Traffic Control, 2-1-1, ATC Service and 2-10-3, Tower Team Position Responsibilities. The controller in charge (CIC) stated in the post event interview that he heard the LC1 controller calling TMU for the release and said he should have made the call instead, and this was a failure on his part. This would have allowed the LC1 controller to concentrate on traffic. The CIC also stated he was not actively monitoring the LC1 controller frequencies and stated he should have been a second set of eyes for the LC1 controller. This was not consistent with guidance contained in the LGB7110.3G SOP, Chapter 3-1-1, Clearance Delivery, Chapter 7-1-1, Front Line Manger/Controller in Charge and 7-2-1, subsection f.
Probable cause
The local controller’s poor judgment in prioritization of their ground traffic ahead of their airborne traffic, that became a distraction and led to a loss of situational awareness resulting in a near midair collision. Contributing to the incident was the controller in charge’s ineffective oversight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record OPS24LA004
- Event ID
- 20231027193314
- Case number
- OPS24LA004
- 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: investigation status, coordinates, cause areas, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the UTC date the NTSB stores; the local time zone is not recorded, so the local date may differ by a day.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7e1c521642df3e74242171f5635402d9a5dd99abc0e2a138e496af6cf746f4a2; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:42:21.608Z.