LAX95LA034 · Cessna 150K
Valley Flight Center Cessna 150K · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA034
- 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
Cessna 150K
- 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
- N6110K
- Operator
- Valley Flight Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), 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
- En route · descent
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Flightcrew › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AND HIS DUAL PRIMARY STUDENT WERE COMPLETING A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT AND IN THE PROCESS OF LETTING DOWN FOR PATTERN ENTRY AT EL MONTE WHEN THE ENGINE LOST POWER. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR ATTEMPTED TO MAKE A NIGHT FORCED LANDING IN A DRY RIVERBED AND COLLIDED WITH GROUND OBSTRUCTIONS DURING TOUCHDOWN. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED AT THE ACCIDENT SITE BY A SAFETY BOARD INVESTIGATOR. COMPLETE FUEL SYSTEM CONTINUITY WAS ESTABLISHED WITH NO EVIDENCE OF LINE OR TANK LEAKAGE. THE FUEL TANK VENT SYSTEM WAS NOT BLOCKED AND NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL SIPHONING WAS OBSERVED ON THE UPPER SURFACES OF THE WINGS. ONLY RESIDUAL FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL SYSTEM.
Probable cause
fuel exhaustion due to the failure of both pilots to ensure that an adequate supply was on board prior to departure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA034
- Event ID
- 20001206X02616
- Case number
- LAX95LA034
- 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 1994-11-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9fe04d9d35334603341df89834c8732a6c9eb34dcae89f42c270db0e28d8e801; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:26:28.903Z.