- Date
- December 8, 1991, 11:00 local (19:00 UTC)
- Place
- Pine Valley, CA
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 1 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N36506Piper PA-34-200T
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 23, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19911208055089A
- Case key
- 27513
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 pilot's failure to monitor the proper altitude over obserable rising terrain. A contributing factor was the pilot's encounter with a strong downdraft.
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
According to the commercial pilot, during the initial portion of his daytime cross country flight he planned to fly beneath the base of the terminal control area (tca). After clearing the tca's lateral boundary, the pilot encountered turbulence and initiated a climb from his 4700 foot cruise altitude to 7500 feet MSL. Upon reaching 5300 feet MSL, a strong downdraft was encountered. The airplane lost altitude and collided with a 4800 foot MSL hill.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N36506
- Reported as
- Piper PA-34-200T
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 34-7870339
- Airframe hours
- 742
- Engine
- Continental LTSI0-360-EB1, 200 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Neil S. Brown
- Registered owner
- Quality Honeycomb, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · August 8, 1991 · 5 hours before
- Departed
- SEE · San Diego, CA
- Destination
- FFZ · Mesa, AZ
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
- 58
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 931 total · 465 in this make and model · 795 as pilot in command · 3 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 1,000 ft broken
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.