- Date
- January 12, 1990, 20:37 local (Jan 13, 1990, 04:37 UTC)
- Place
- Tom'S Place, CA
- Injuries
- 3 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Unknown
- Aircraft
- N5831JCessna 182P
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report December 10, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900112000489A
- Case key
- 17814
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Continued flight by the pilot into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), and his failure to maintain sufficient altitude above the ground. Factors related to the accident were: dark night, adverse weather conditions, self induced pressure, and spatial disorientation.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The plt had a cabin nr mammoth/june lakes arpt & often flew there on weekends. While on a ngt flt, he communicated with an outbound cargo plt, who warned of hvy snw fall & poor vis at the arpt. While conversing, the plt of N5831J replied, 'oh dear, my car is up there.' The cargo plt again warned that he doubted if N5831J could lnd at the arpt. A worker, who left the arpt at 2030 PST, noted the rwy lgts came on as he was driving home. He believed the lgts were activated by a plt (by keying the mike 5 times on UNICOM freq). Three witnesses saw the acft (or acft lgts) at about the time it crashed. Impact occurred in a left wing low, nose dwn attitude. One witness thought the acft was turning or arcing when it crashed. Another witness estimated there was a 100' ceiling with snw falling on a dark ngt. Impact was about 1 mi fm a hiway btn mammoth lakes & bishop, CA (abt 10 mi se of mammoth/june lakes arpt & 17 mi nw of bishop arpt). No preimpactpart failure/malfunction of the acft or eng was fnd. There was no published inst apch proc at mammoth/june lakes arpt.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5831J
- Reported as
- Cessna 182P
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 18263559
- Airframe hours
- 3,659
- Engine
- Continental O-470-S, 230 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Grice, Thomas G.
- Registered owner
- Grice, Thomas G
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · September 9, 1989
- Departed
- CPM · Compton, CA
- Destination
- MMH · Mammoth Lake, CA
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 52
- Certificates
- Commercial, Private
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 2,683 total · 531 in this make and model · 42 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Lowest ceiling
- 100 ft unknown
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.