LAX95LA193 · Cessna 172F
Cessna 172F · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Beale Air Force Base (BAB) to O48 · LITTLE RIVER, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA193
- 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 172F
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N5255F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Beale Air Force Base (BAB), BEALE AFB, CATo O48 · LITTLE RIVER, 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 go-around
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID THAT THE ORIGINAL DESTINATION AIRPORT WAS FOGGED IN WHEN THE FLIGHT ARRIVED AND HE WAS ATTEMPTING TO FIND AN AIRPORT THAT WAS OPEN. AFTER ARRIVING OVER THE AIRPORT AT BOONVILLE, THE PILOT MADE A LOW FLYBY OF THE RUNWAY TO CHECK IT OVER IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FLYING CLUB RULES REGARDING LANDINGS AT STRANGE AIRPORTS. THE PILOT ADDED POWER TO GO AROUND AND ENTER THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AGAIN FOR LANDING. AS THE AIRCRAFT ACHIEVED ABOUT 300 FEET AGL, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND THE AIRCRAFT CONTACTED THE SOFT GROUND BEYOND THE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE NOSE WHEEL SHEARED OFF AFTER IT DUG INTO THE SOFT SOIL. FOLLOWING RECOVERY OF THE AIRCRAFT, IT WAS EXAMINED BY AN FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTOR AND A CERTIFICATED AIRFRAME AND POWERPLANT MECHANIC. THE INSPECTOR REPORTED THAT NO PREIMPACT DISCREPANCIES WERE FOUND. AFTER REPAIR OF IMPACT DAMAGE, THE ENGINE WAS SUCCESSFULLY STARTED AND RUN USING THE AIRFRAME FUEL AND IGNITION SYSTEMS. THE TEMPERATURE AND DEW POINT AT THE CLOSEST WEATHER REPORTING FACILITY WERE NOTED TO BE 79 AND 42 DEGREES RESPECTIVELY.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA193
- Event ID
- 20001207X03496
- Case number
- LAX95LA193
- 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 1995-05-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e2e2393c23d7286665a6dda0544fb9b4c3de86bf4a1997ca777fe3c33f74b1ba; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:54:58.706Z.