- Date
- March 1, 1992, 00:17 local (08:17 UTC)
- Place
- Pacific Ocean (Pacific Ocean)
- Injuries
- 2 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N2425UCessna 172D
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report August 26, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 27386
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
The failure of the pilot to adequately evaluate the weather conditions, and continued VFR flight into IMC conditions which resulted in the pilot becoming lost and disoriented. Contributing to the accident was the lack of total aeronautical experience and fuel exhaustion.
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 certificated private pilot and a passenger departed a coastal airport on a night cross country flight to so. Lake tahoe, CA, with a planned time enroute of 3 hours. About 6 hours after the estimated departure time, the pilot contacted a flight service station, reporting that he was lost and was on top of an overcast in instrument meteorological conditions with less than one hour of fuel remaining. Through communications efforts radar contact with seattle center was established; the airplane was located about 110 miles west of the U.S. Coast line and given radar vectors to return to the coast. About 15 minutes after radar contact, the pilot reported fuel exhaustion, and indicated that no survival equipment was on board the airplane. Radar contact was lost when the airplane was about 70 miles west of the coast line. A search failed to locate the airplane. The pilot and passenger are presumed to have received fatal injuries and that the airplane was destroyed.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2425U
- Reported as
- Cessna 172D
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17250025
- Engine
- Continental O-300-D, 145 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Mc Donald, Rex
- Registered owner
- Mcdonald, Lawrence
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 1, 1991 · 20 hours before
- Departed
- EKA · Eureka, CA
- Destination
- TVL · Lake Tahoe, 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
- 26
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 82 total
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 170° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 800 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 45 °F, dew point -0 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- CEC, 70 nm away