LAX95LA253 · Piper PA-25-235
Piper PA-25-235 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Estrella Sailport Gliderport (E68) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA253
- 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-25-235
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-25
- 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
- N9188T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Estrella Sailport Gliderport (E68)To not recorded
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Maricopa, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE WAS ABOUT 50 FEET AGL IN THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB TOWING A GLIDER ALOFT, WHEN HE BECAME AWARE OF A LOSS OF POWER ACCOMPANIED BY A BLACK SMOKE TRAILING FROM THE AIRCRAFT. THE PILOT RELEASED THE GLIDER, BUT DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH ALTITUDE OR AIRCRAFT ENERGY TO MAKE A RETURN TO RUNWAY MANEUVER. HE LANDED ON SOFT DESERT SOIL, AND DURING THE ROLLOUT, THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED AND THE LEFT WING WAS DAMAGED. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, A PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DISCLOSED HEAVY SOOTING OF ALL SPARK PLUGS. NO EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE WAS NOTED. THE PILOT SAID HE BELIEVES AN INTERNAL MALFUNCTION OF THE CARBURETOR WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POWER LOSS. THE ENGINE AND CARBURETOR WERE EXAMINED BY AN FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTOR WHO REPORTED THAT THE CARBURETOR WAS TOO BADLY DAMAGED TO MAKE ANY DETERMINATION REGARDING POTENTIAL DISCREPANCIES.
Probable cause
an undetermined internal failure of the carburetor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA253
- Event ID
- 20001207X04001
- Case number
- LAX95LA253
- 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: f9debb682e48c9455b880fbc498903bf2500515262d065892f16b93ca23e79e3; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:40:55.129Z.