LAX94LA230 · Piper PA-34-200
Air Desert Pacific Piper PA-34-200 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Brackett Field (POC) to Chino Airport (CNO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA230
- 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
Piper PA-34-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N4810T
- Operator
- Air Desert Pacific
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brackett Field (POC), La Verne, CATo Chino Airport (CNO)
- 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 go-around
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- 1 engine › Output low
- Dual student › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR REPORTED THAT HIS STUDENT WAS PERFORMING A PRACTICE SINGLE-ENGINE ILS APPROACH TO RUNWAY 26 WITH THE RIGHT ENGINE SET AT ZERO THRUST. THE AIRCRAFT WAS HIGH AND HAD DRIFTED OVER THE RIGHT EDGE OF THE RUNWAY WHEN THE INSTRUCTOR COMMANDED THE STUDENT TO GO-AROUND. ACCORDING TO THE INSTRUCTOR, THE STUDENT BROUGHT UP BOTH THROTTLES; HOWEVER, THE RIGHT ENGINE FAILED TO RESPOND. THE AIRCRAFT YAWED AND ROLLED TO THE RIGHT, THE RIGHT WING TIP STRUCK THE GROUND, AND THE AIRCRAFT CARTWHEELED TO A STOP. THE RIGHT ENGINE WAS REMOVED FROM THE AIRCRAFT AND EXAMINED BY A FAA CERTIFIED AIRFRAME AND POWER PLANT MECHANIC. NO DISCREPANCIES WERE NOTED DURING THE EXAMINATION.
Probable cause
THE RIGHT ENGINE'S FAILURE FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS TO RESPOND TO THROTTLE COMMAND DURING A GO-AROUND ATTEMPT, AND BOTH PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT. INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT BY THE CFI IS ALSO CONSIDERED A CAUSE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA230
- Event ID
- 20001206X01334
- Case number
- LAX94LA230
- 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 1994-05-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 934ffe81881b1def406e135d9bd1654134df0ef55818ad7d718a960c7831d6a2; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:03:16.037Z.