Skip to content

LAX92LA381

1992-09-12 · CHICO, California, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport CIC

N45DH has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BEECH D55, built 1969), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT MISJUDGED THE AEROBATIC MANEUVER RECOVERY ALTITUDE.

Factual narrative

THE CERTIFICATED AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT, THE SOLE OCCUPANT, WAS NEARING COMPLETION OF AN AEROBATICS DEMONSTRATION FLIGHT AT AN AIR SHOW. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE PILOT PERFORM A 'SPLIT S' MANEUVER, DURING WHICH TIME THE EXPERIMENTAL MICRO JET WAS ROLLED INVERTED TO A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED FROM THE ENTRY PORTION OF THE MANEUVER IN A WINGS LEVEL DIVE TO ABOUT A 60 TO 70 DEGREE NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE UNTIL COLLIDING WITH THE GROUND. A VIDEO TAPE TAKEN BY A SPECTATOR SHOWS THAT THE AIRPLANE'S ATTITUDE DID NOT CHANGE PRIOR TO IMPACT. THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS FOUND. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1992_LAX92LA381.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.