LAX94LA286 · Cessna 150D
Cessna 150D · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From O51 · Lincoln, CA to Portland, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA286
- 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
- 2 · 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 150D
- 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
- N6052T
- Operator
- Douglas Kiss
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From O51 · Lincoln, CATo Portland, OR
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS EN ROUTE TO PORTLAND OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. AT 0940, THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE WAS NOTIFIED OF A FIRE AND THE AIRCRAFT WRECKAGE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY LOCATED IN A SADDLE AT THE 6,480-FOOT LEVEL. THE ACCIDENT SITE IS THE ONLY RELATIVELY CLEAR AREA IN THE VICINITY. AT 1000, A HELICOPTER REACHED THE ACCIDENT SITE AND DROPPED WATER ON THE BURNING WRECKAGE. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND WITHIN A 23-FOOT-DIAMETER AREA. AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT WRECKAGE REVEALED DAMAGE CONSISTENT WITH A LOW-SPEED, MODERATE-ANGLE CONTROLLED IMPACT. THE AIRCRAFT'S ENGINE HAD BEEN MODIFIED TO OPERATE ON 87 OCTANE AUTO FUEL. AN INSPECTION REVEALED THE SPARK PLUGS WERE WORN, WITH THE ELECTRODES FOUND TO HAVE A GAP IN EXCESS OF .022 OF AN INCH. NONE OF THE SPARK PLUGS WERE FOULED. THE FUEL INLET SCREEN EXHIBITED A DARK, WET SUBSTANCE. A THREAD COMPOUND WAS PRESENT AND ON THE FUEL INLET SCREEN. THE CARBURETOR HAD COMPOSITE FLOATS INSTALLED. THE TWO-PIECE VENTURI WAS FOUND DISPLACED IN THE CARBURETOR THROAT. A LINEMAN AT LINCOLN HAD SEEN THE AIRCRAFT BEING FUELED FROM SEVERAL CANS THE DAY PRIOR TO ITS DEPARTURE FROM THE LINCOLN AIRPORT.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. The mountainous terrain and lack of a suitable forced landing area within gliding distance was a factor in the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA286
- Event ID
- 20001206X01781
- Case number
- LAX94LA286
- 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: fdfae6eadbfa96b931adb02a1ec79f5687040439140b4f08073f93dd9535ea62; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:04:32.831Z.