LAX94FA309 · Aero Commander 112
Aero Commander 112 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Laughlin Bullhead International Airport (IFP) to Falcon Field (FFZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94FA309
- 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
- 3 · 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
Aero Commander 112
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 112
- 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
- N1018J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Laughlin Bullhead International Airport (IFP), Bullhead City, AZTo Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa, AZ
- 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 · climb to 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical 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
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, improper
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Flare, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE LANDED HARD AND FLIPPED OVER IN A DESERT WASH AFTER A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE NUMBER 4 PISTON CONNECTING ROD FAILED AS A RESULT OF LACK OF LUBRICATION. FURTHER EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DISCLOSED THE ENGINE CRANKCASE HALVES WERE REPAIRED DURING THE LAST ENGINE OVERHAUL. THE CASE HALVES WERE WELDED IN THE NUMBER 3 MAIN BEARING (CENTER) AND NUMBER 4 MAIN BEARING (REAR) BOSSES. THE OIL SUPPLY HOLE THAT SUPPLIES OIL TO THE NUMBER 4 CONNECTING ROD WAS FOUND WELDED OVER AND NOT BORED AFTER THE REPAIR. THE ENGINE WAS OVERHAULED 1,420 HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
Failure of the certified flight instructor to properly judge the flare to avert a hard landing, and the failure of other maintenance personnel to properly repair the engine case halves during engine overhaul. A factor in the accident was the uneven relief of the desert terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94FA309
- Event ID
- 20001206X02063
- Case number
- LAX94FA309
- 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: 10399f675b8a6e9d3c29e505c34886d87185db715cd77b6c4177947c9b66411a; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:03:20.642Z.