LAX94FA198 · Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during an emergency descent
From an unrecorded airport to Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94FA198
- 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-32R-301T PA-32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N8171G
- Operator
- Patrick D. Brinnon · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CA
- 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
- Emergency descent
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation; Stall/spin; Utility pole
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER A CROSS-COUNTRY INTERMEDIATE STOP, THE PILOT DEPARTED FOR THE LAST PORTION OF HIS FLIGHT. JUST AFTER LIFT-OFF, WITNESSES HEARD THE ENGINE SPUTTER SEVERAL TIMES AND THEN QUIT. THE PILOT BEGAN A 180-DEGREE RIGHT TURN AND ATTAINED AN ALTITUDE OF BETWEEN 300 AND 400 FEET. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED IN A NOSE-DOWN ATTITUDE AND STRUCK A UTILITY POLE AND A RESIDENTIAL GARAGE. A POSTCRASH FIRE BEGAN AT THE RIGHT WING AND PROGRESSED ALONG THE GROUND TOWARD THE LEFT WING. THE RIGHT WING WAS DESTROYED. THE UNDERSIDE OF THE LEFT WING WAS PUNCTURED AT THE INBOARD FUEL TANK; HOWEVER, THE LEFT WING RECEIVED NO CHARRING OR PAINT BLISTERING, ONLY SOOTING PRIMARILY ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE WING. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED ON THE LEFT TANK. SIXTEEN OUNCES OF FUEL WERE RECOVERED FROM THE LEFT WING. ABOUT 1 GALLON OF FUEL WAS RECOVERED FROM THE RIGHT WING.
Probable cause
fuel starvation resulting from the failure of the pilot to select a tank containing fuel, and his failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering for a forced landing which resulted in an inadvertent stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94FA198
- Event ID
- 20001206X01119
- Case number
- LAX94FA198
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dd8ff47726630a502183c6ec294c01a468b94f6574849acce879d540bde5ea60; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:11:19.673Z.