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Plane CrashesVersion 2

Two Killed, One Seriously Injured in Cessna 172M Accident Near Poleta, California

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the November 10 accident; the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 11:28 a.m. ET
people were killed and one was seriously injured when a single-engine was involved in an accident near Poleta, in Inyo County, California, on November 10, 2025, at about 11:15 p.m. local time, according to the accident record. The event is still developing and the investigation is open. The accident record lists people on board, fatalities and one serious injury, and states that the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The flight is classified in the record as a Part 91 general aviation flight. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. The cause has not been determined. The aircraft is identified in the record as . Aircraft registry records list as a , a single-engine piston landplane with a Continental O-300 series engine, serial number 17262586, registered in the United States. The operator field in the accident record reads "." Registry records list the registered owner as John P. Quayle; the owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight, and may not have been aboard. Public aviation directories and the City of Livermore's airport-businesses page list a "John Quayle" as the operator of John Quayle Aviation Services Co. at Livermore Municipal Airport, described as a flight instructor and A&P/IA mechanic; it has not been confirmed that these records refer to the same person, and the listings place that individual roughly 250 miles from Poleta with no link to Inyo County or to aircraft ownership there. Geographic reference data places Poleta at a terrain elevation of 4,055 feet, about . miles east-southeast of Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (KBIH). A weather observation recorded at KBIH, . miles away and 19 minutes from the reported time of the accident, showed wind from 320 degrees at 5 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, clear skies and a temperature of 44°F. The observation is an instrument reading and is not a finding about what happened. The NTSB database, which begins in 2008, contains 170 other cases involving the , of which 25 involved a fatality. That count is a matter of record and says nothing about the cause of this accident.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Registration
N13221
Type
Cessna 172M — single-engine piston landplane
Engines
CONT MOTOR 0-300 SER
Registered owner
Quayle John PThe owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight.
Terrain elevation
4,055 ft
Nearest aerodrome
2.2 miles ESE of Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (KBIH/BIH)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 27 Aug 2026, 15:28current

    No new facts; added source URLs for the owner-background listings and left the reported details unchanged.

  2. Version 15 Aug 2026, 19:27

    First published.

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