December 19, 1968, Piper PA-28-140 (N1753J) near Mount Laguna, CA
ACCIDENT SYNOPSIS:
The prelude to a severe winter storm was in the forecast when a flight instructor, student pilot, and an observer departed Phoenix, Arizona bound for San Diego California. The purpose of the night training flight was to prepare the instructor's student for his private pilot checkride and to re-position the rental aircraft back to it's home base in San Diego. The 34 year old Flight Instructor had 771 total flight hours, but only a mere 29 hours in the Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee aircraft.
The Flight Instructor did not request a weather briefing which called for severe turbulence with strong updrafts and downdrafts. Despite the weather and dark night, the instructor decided to file a VFR (Visual) flight plan.
As the flight progressed westerly towards San Diego, the turbulence and visibilty became increasingly worse near the mountainous Laguna Range. Fighting turbulence and spatial disorientation, it was not long before the single-engine Piper departed controlled flight (possible in-flight breakup) and impacted the snow covered slopes of Cuyapaipe Mountain fifty miles east of it's destination. All three were killed.
The next day an air search was mounted for the missing aircraft which was mostly conducted in poor weather conditions. Tragedy struck twice while in the process of the search, two members of the local Civil Air Patrol were killed when their own plane collided with nearby Tecate Peak.
The remains of the missing Piper and it's three occupants were eventually located under heavy snow December 24, 1968, Christmas Eve Day.
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HISTORICAL SUMMARY:
This wreck site was located by me in 2003 while conducting a re-position flight from Yuma to Long Beach. With substantial wreckage on the ground, I initially thought that I had located the 1946 crash site of American Airlines Flight 6-103 or that of Western Air Lines Flight 44 which also crashed in the area during the same year.
A visit to the site in November 2009 revealed that it was in fact neither DC-3, but a Piper Cherokee lost in 1968.
Read MoreThe prelude to a severe winter storm was in the forecast when a flight instructor, student pilot, and an observer departed Phoenix, Arizona bound for San Diego California. The purpose of the night training flight was to prepare the instructor's student for his private pilot checkride and to re-position the rental aircraft back to it's home base in San Diego. The 34 year old Flight Instructor had 771 total flight hours, but only a mere 29 hours in the Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee aircraft.
The Flight Instructor did not request a weather briefing which called for severe turbulence with strong updrafts and downdrafts. Despite the weather and dark night, the instructor decided to file a VFR (Visual) flight plan.
As the flight progressed westerly towards San Diego, the turbulence and visibilty became increasingly worse near the mountainous Laguna Range. Fighting turbulence and spatial disorientation, it was not long before the single-engine Piper departed controlled flight (possible in-flight breakup) and impacted the snow covered slopes of Cuyapaipe Mountain fifty miles east of it's destination. All three were killed.
The next day an air search was mounted for the missing aircraft which was mostly conducted in poor weather conditions. Tragedy struck twice while in the process of the search, two members of the local Civil Air Patrol were killed when their own plane collided with nearby Tecate Peak.
The remains of the missing Piper and it's three occupants were eventually located under heavy snow December 24, 1968, Christmas Eve Day.
************************************************************************************************************************************
HISTORICAL SUMMARY:
This wreck site was located by me in 2003 while conducting a re-position flight from Yuma to Long Beach. With substantial wreckage on the ground, I initially thought that I had located the 1946 crash site of American Airlines Flight 6-103 or that of Western Air Lines Flight 44 which also crashed in the area during the same year.
A visit to the site in November 2009 revealed that it was in fact neither DC-3, but a Piper Cherokee lost in 1968.
To better examine the wreckage we decided to flip the remains of the Piper over which gave us a better perspective of the damage to the plane.
One major component that was missing from the plane was the aircraft's tail section. A theory we had was that the plane was involved in a in-flight breakup scenario. Another is that it was removed from the site during a salvage operation for re-usable parts.