LAX95LA107 · Varga 2150A
Varga 2150A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Eloy Municipal Airport (E60) to Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA107
- 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
Varga 2150A
- Aircraft type
- Varga 2150
- 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
- N56180
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eloy Municipal Airport (E60), Eloy, AZTo Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT IS A RETIRED MILITARY AVIATOR WHO WAS IN THE PROCESS OF QUALIFYING FOR A CIVILIAN PILOT CERTIFICATE. HE SAID THE FUEL TANKS WERE FULL AT DEPARTURE FROM YUMA AND HE DID NOT REFUEL AT ELOY. PRIOR TO DEPARTURE, HE VISUALLY LOOKED INSIDE THE TANKS AND ESTIMATED THAT ABOUT 20 GALLONS OF A 33 USABLE TOTAL WERE AVAILABLE. THE TOTAL ELAPSED FLIGHT TIME FROM DEPARTURE AT YUMA UNTIL THE ACCIDENT WAS CALCULATED TO BE ABOUT 2 HOURS 53 MINUTES. THE PILOT SAID THAT ABOUT 39 MILES FROM YUMA HE CONTACTED YUMA APPROACH FOR RADAR ADVISORIES. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE ENGINE QUIT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OVER A MOUNTAINOUS AREA WITHOUT SUITABLE LANDING AREAS AND THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED THAT THE FUEL SYSTEM WAS INTACT WITH NO EVIDENCE OF LEAKAGE. ONLY RESIDUAL FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS. THE FUEL LINES TO THE CARBURETOR DID NOT CONTAIN FUEL. AN FAA INSPECTOR EXAMINED THE AIRCRAFT AND FOUND NO DISCREPANCIES WITH THE AIRFRAME OR ENGINE. THE FUEL TANK SENDING UNITS WERE TESTED AND FOUND TO FUNCTION CORRECTLY.
Probable cause
fuel exhaustion due to the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection and his failure to refuel the aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA107
- Event ID
- 20001207X02992
- Case number
- LAX95LA107
- 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 1995-02-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a5f6909567077fd250382bd001922d17778f78aa5cbf1b2dae2405dc5b90ea81; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:26:24.922Z.