LAX89FA013
1988-10-12 · SANTA MARIA, California, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport SMX
Current FAA registration · N6198H
- Make / Model
- PIPER PA-23-235
- Seats / Engines
- 5 seats · 2 engines
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A813A5
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT FAILED TO FOLLOW THE CORRECT I.F.R. PROCEDURES WHEREAS HE DESCENDED BELOW THE FINAL APPROACH FIX ALTITUDE.
Factual narrative
DRG ARRIVAL, THE PLT WAS PROVIDED VECTORS FOR A LOCALIZER/DME BACKCOURSE-ALPHA APCH TO RWY 30. VECTORS WERE PROVIDED TO INTERCEPT THE LOCALIZER BEFORE REACHING THE FINAL APCH FIX (CAMCO), WHICH WAS 6 MI FROM THE RWY. ALSO, THE PLT WAS INSTRUCTED TO MAINTAIN 3500' UNTIL ESTABLISHED ON THE LOCALIZER. AT 1003:52, HE WAS ADZD THAT RADAR SVC WAS TERMINATED &TO CONTACT THE TOWER. AT 1006, HE CONTACTED THE TOWER & ACKNOWLEDGED INSTRUCTIONS TO RPRT AT CAMCO, THEN THERE WAS NO FURTHER COMMUNICATION WITH THE ACFT. SEARCH PROCEDURES WERE INITIATED & THE ACFT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY FOUND WHERE IT HAD CRASHED ABT 1/2 MI SW OF CAMCO AT AN ELEVATION OF APRX 1326'. MIN ALTITUDE FOR THE APCH WAS 3000' UNTIL PASSING CAMCO, THEN THE MIN ALTITUDE WAS 1680' UNTIL REACHING 'PATER' WHICH WAS 2.2 MI FROM THE RWY. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT OR ENG WAS FOUND. THE PILOT HAD LOGGED 5.4 ACTUAL INSTRUMENT HOURS AND 6 INSTRUMENT APPROACHES IN THE PRECEDING 6 MOS. HIS LOG DID NOT RECORD ANY EXPERIENCE WITH BACKCOURSE APPROACHES. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1988_LAX89FA013.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
- Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗
- Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗
- AVweb Aviation press ↗
- Pilots of America Community ↗
- Reddit /r/flying Community ↗
- FlightAware Aviation press ↗
- AOPA accident database Aviation press ↗
- Google News News ↗
- DuckDuckGo News ↗