Flight Details
The pilot intended to complete a local flight around Santa Catalina Island. Friends indicated that the pilot was starting an aerial photography business. One friend, a photographer, had flown a previous photographic flight around the island with the pilot and stated they flew well below the level of the mountaintops during that flight.
Accident Sequence
The airplane collided with upsloping terrain at an elevation of approximately 1,440 feet mean sea level (msl). The accident site was at the apex of a peak less than 1/2 mile east of the highest point on Santa Catalina Island's western peninsula, Silver Peak, which has an elevation of 1,804 feet msl. The shoreline (sea level) was less than a mile to the right of the flight path. The debris field was about 120 feet long on a magnetic heading of 315 degrees, roughly paralleling the ridgeline in the area. There were no witnesses to the accident. The hour meter indicated 0.8 hours had elapsed during the flight.
Discovery and Environmental Conditions
The airplane was discovered the following morning by a Coast Guard helicopter investigating an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal. Sunset on the day of the accident was at 1844. The inclination of the sun was 1.9, 1.0, and 0.1 degrees at 1830, 1835, and 1840, respectively. The sun's azimuth was 250.8, 251.5, and 252.2 degrees at those times.