LAX94LA382 · Piper PA-24-260
Piper PA-24-260 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Placerville Airport (PVF) to Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA382
- 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-24-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N8707P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Placerville Airport (PVF), Placerville, CATo Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), 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 turn to base
- 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
- 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 › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fullerton, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND HIS INSTRUCTOR RATED PASSENGER HAD FLOWN TO PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA, FROM LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA. THE IFR FLIGHT PLANNED ROUTE WAS ABOUT 340 NAUTICAL MILES WITH AN ESTIMATED 5 HOURS OF FUEL ON-BOARD. THE TOTAL ESTIMATED ROUND-TRIP FLYING TIME WAS ABOUT 4 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES. JUST BEFORE LANDING, WHILE TURNING BASE-LEG, THE ENGINE LOST POWER. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A LIGHT STANDARD AND UTILITY POLE DURING A FORCED LANDING AND WAS DESTROYED. THE USABLE FUEL CAPACITY IN FOUR TANKS WAS 86 GALLONS, IF FILLED PROPERLY. ACCORDING TO THE HANDBOOK, THE ESTIMATED FUEL CONSUMPTION WAS 12.7 TO 14.1 GALLONS PER HOUR. THE PILOT ESTIMATED THAT HE HAD 40 TO 45 GALLONS OF FUEL REMAINING FOR THE RETURN FLIGHT. NEITHER PILOT STATED WHAT TECHNIQUE THEY USED IN SWITCHING AMONG THE FOUR FUEL TANKS (GAUGES OR TIMING). ABOUT 2.5 GALLONS OF FUEL WAS FOUND REMAINING IN AN AUX TANK. THE FUEL SYSTEM WAS COMPROMISED IN THE ACCIDENT AND SOME FUEL SPILLED FROM THE OTHER TANKS. A PLACARD ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL WARNED THAT 'UNCOORDINATED MANEUVERS INCLUDING LONG SIDE SLIPS AND FAST TAXI TURNS JUST PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, MAY CAUSE LOSS OF POWER, ESPECIALLY IF FUEL TANK IS LESS THAN HALF FULL.'
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION DUE TO IMPROPER FUEL MANAGEMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA382
- Event ID
- 20001206X02305
- Case number
- LAX94LA382
- 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: 22f361c55081ad293b498abc68fbebc885f38cb4198489f7796ddc2054d762fb; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:36:57.768Z.