LAX94FA159 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94FA159
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N8129W
- Operator
- David R. Thompson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO), Santa Monica, CATo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Cooling system, cowling › Disengaged
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, replacement, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING INITIAL CLIMB AT 300 FEET AGL, THE UPPER COWL RAISED UP BETWEEN 1 AND 2 INCHES. THE PILOT REPORTED HE STAYED IN THE PATTERN. ON BASE LEG, THE UPPER COWL DISLODGED FURTHER FROM THE ACFT AND PRODUCED DRAG. UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE, A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE DURING WHICH THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH POWER LINES AND HOMES 1/2 MILE FROM THE RUNWAY. PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT, THE PILOT, WHO OWNED THE ACFT AND WHO WORKED AS AN A & P MECHANIC, HAD REMOVED AND PARTIALLY REPLACED THE ENGINE COWL. A FRIEND OF THE PILOT, WHO ALSO HELD AN A & P CERTIFICATE AND WAS A PILOT, ASSISTED BY PLACING THE LEFT SIDE OF THE UPPER COWL BACK ON THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT. THE SURVIVING PILOT REPORTED THAT HE HAD NOT OBSERVED THE PILOT-RATED PASSENGER PHYSICALLY SECURE THE LEFT SIDE OF THE UPPER COWL TO THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT. DURING THE WRECKAGE EXAM, ALL OF THE FIRE-DAMAGED COWL STRUCTURE WAS FOUND AT THE CRASH SITE EXCEPT FOR THE TWO FORWARD-POINTED UPPER COWL ENGAGEMENT PINS AND THEIR SUPPORTING STRUCTURE. ALSO NOT FOUND WAS THE NYLON GROMMET/BUSHING WHICH NORMALLY WAS SEATED IN THE LOWER COWL'S LEFT SIDE FORWARD PLATE ASSEMBLY.
Probable cause
the failure of the upper engine compartment cowl to remain attached to the lower cowl during initial climb as a result of inadequate maintenance and replacement practices by the aircraft owner.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94FA159
- Event ID
- 20001206X00917
- Case number
- LAX94FA159
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-03-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 96f397172f91946412a8469c2e4c3bd3491efffa4284fcf8d9e6d3a4058888ba; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:13:36.574Z.