LAX94LA191 · Cessna 150M
Aero Tech Academy Cessna 150M · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From L12 · Redlands, CA to L12 · CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA191
- 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
- 0 · 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
Cessna 150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N9276U
- Operator
- Aero Tech Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L12 · Redlands, CATo L12 · 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT LOST POWER AND COLLIDED WITH ROCKS SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. THE STUDENT PILOT WAS UNABLE TO REGAIN ENGINE POWER WHILE TURNING FROM THE DOWNWIND LEG TO THE BASE LEG AFTER REALIZING HIS ALTITUDE WAS TOO LOW. THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE STOPPED RUNNING IN RESPONSE TO THE STUDENT PILOT'S THROTTLE APPLICATION. THE AIRPLANE OPERATOR SUSPECTED THE CARBURETOR VENTURI WAS ICED, CHOKING AIR FLOW, AND THE APPLICATION OF THROTTLE ENRICHED THE FUEL AIR MIXTURE TO A POINT WHERE THE ENGINE WOULD NOT RUN. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. IMPACT DAMAGE PRECLUDED THE OPERATIONAL TESTING OF THE AIRPLANE'S CARBURETOR HEAT SYSTEM. THE TEMPERATURE AND DEW POINT AT THE CLOSEST REPORTING WEATHER OBSERVATION FACILITY WAS 68 AND 47 DEGREES RESPECTIVELY. REVIEW OF A CARBURETOR ICING PROBABILITY CHART REVEALED THAT THE LISTED TEMPERATURE AND DEW POINT IS IN AN AREA OF THE GRAPH ANNOTATED 'MODERATE ICING IN CRUISE POWER, SERIOUS ICING WITH GLIDE POWER.'
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to undetermined reasons. The failure of the student pilot to properly plan his airport traffic pattern to reach the runway or other suitable forced landing area in the event of a loss of engine power was a factor in the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA191
- Event ID
- 20001206X01135
- Case number
- LAX94LA191
- 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: e9a2a02a26e5c9e73a19cbd004a35af5eb04a87587a8371b80e1f21fe5b68b01; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:40:08.983Z.