LAX94FA354 · Stinson 108-3
Stinson 108-3 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Lodi Airport (1O3)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94FA354
- 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
- 4 · 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
Stinson 108-3
- Aircraft type
- Stinson 108
- 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
- N6446M
- Operator
- Gary D. Murdock · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lodi Airport (1O3), Lodi, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE AIRPLANE TOOK OFF, WITNESSES HEARD AN ABNORMAL SOUND FROM THE ENGINE, AND THEN THE ENGINE SOUND STOPPED MOMENTARILY AND RESUMED. THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A RIGHT 180-DEGREE TURN. WHILE IN THE TURN, ANOTHER POWER INTERRUPTION OCCURRED BEFORE THE ENGINE STOPPED COMPLETELY. GROUND WITNESSES SAID THAT AFTER THE FINAL ENGINE STOPPAGE, THE AIRCRAFT STALLED AND SPUN INTO THE SHORELINE. HIGH TIDE CAUSED THE AIRPLANE TO SHIFT BEFORE IT WAS INSPECTED. THE FUEL PRIMER CONTROL WAS FOUND UNLOCKED AND EXTENDED. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND POSITIONED TO THE RIGHT TANK. ALTHOUGH BOTH MAIN FUEL TANKS HAD RUPTURED ON IMPACT, THERE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE FIRE DAMAGE AND HYDRAULIC DEFORMATION ASSOCIATED WITH THE RIGHT MAIN TANK THAN THE LEFT. A COMPUTATION OF FUEL CONSUMPTION INDICATED THAT ABOUT 23 GALLONS OF FUEL HAD BEEN USED SINCE THE AIRPLANE WAS LAST REFUELED. THE CAPACITY OF EACH TANK WAS 23 GALLONS OF USABLE FUEL. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION AND LOSS OF ENGINE POWER, IMPROPER (OR DELAYED) POSITIONING OF THE FUEL SELECTOR TO THE FULLEST TANK, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHILE MANEUVERING FOR A FORCED LANDING, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL/SPIN AND COLLISION WITH TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94FA354
- Event ID
- 20001206X02271
- Case number
- LAX94FA354
- 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: 062f5023be33b7f1cb36d7630c0c9e4bedc17e714f040df7f4a7ee95b569676f; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:01:11.002Z.