Cessna 172N N2838E

Summary

On 29 March 2001 at about 02:58 local time, a Cessna 172N registered N2838E, operated by Justice Aviation, Inc., was involved in an accident near Santa Monica, California, United States. 3 people were on board and 3 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

29 March 2001 at 02:58

Classification

Accident

Location

Santa Monica, California, United States

Coordinates

34.0217, -118.5819

Aircraft

Cessna 172N

Registration

N2838E

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Justice Aviation, Inc.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Santa Monica → Santa Monica

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Night/Dark

NTSB number

LAX01FA129

3 people died.

the pilot's loss of airplane control while maneuvering due to spatial disorientation. Contributing factors were the dark night, the marine cloud layer that restricted the pilot's cruising altitude, and the pilot's lack of familiarity with nighttime flight over the ocean.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane impacted the water descending at a high rate of speed. On a dark moonless night, the noninstrument rated private pilot rented an airplane and flew below a marine layer of clouds along the coastal shoreline. The pilot initiated a course reversal turn, during which the airplane turned away from the city lights. During the turn, seconds after the airplane was headed nearly perpendicular to the shoreline, the pilot commenced a descending right turn with a vertical descent rate of over 2,100 feet per minute. A witness about 1 mile away reported that the airplane looked as though it was falling straight down into the water. The pilot had taken his primary flight lessons from a Texas-based school, and he was, by his own admission, not familiar with flying around marine cloud layers. No evidence of mechanical malfunction or failures was noted during the wreckage examination.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.