LAX95LA314 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: propeller failure/malfunction en route
From E14 · AZ to UNKNOWN
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA314
- 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
- 1 · 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-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N7156T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From E14 · AZTo UNKNOWN
- 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 · climb to cruise
- 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
- Propeller failure/malfunction
- 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
- Tree(s); Wire, static
- 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Propeller system/accessories › Loose
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS BEGINNING A FLIGHT TO TRANSPORT MARIJUANA IN DUFFLE BAGS. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF THE RIGHT PROPELLER BEGAN TO SEPARATE FROM ITS MOUNTING FLANGE. THE PILOT TURNED THE AIRPLANE TOWARD THE AIRPORT, FEATHERED THE WRONG PROPELLER AND BEGAN TO THROW OUT THE DUFFLE BAGS. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A TREE, WIRES, AND A PRIVATELY OWNED RESIDENCE. TWO PERSONS IN THE RESIDENCE SUSTAINED MINOR INJURIES. THE POST ACCIDENT WRECKAGE EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE PROPELLER MOUNTING STUDS SAFETY WIRE WAS BROKEN AND THREE OF THE SIX PROPELLER MOUNTING STUDS WERE BROKEN. THE REMAINING MOUNTING STUDS HAD BACKED OFF. THE RIGHT ENGINE OIL SYSTEM CONTAINED EXTENSIVE METAL PARTICLES AND THE PROPELLER GOVERNOR OIL SCREEN WAS ALTERED TO ALLOW UNFILTERED OIL FLOW.
Probable cause
the pilot's poor installation of the propeller which allowed the propeller to become loose, and the pilot's improper emergency procedure by feathering the wrong propeller.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA314
- Event ID
- 20001207X04307
- Case number
- LAX95LA314
- 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: 6c38f3657ce81af7b7dba37a15f25e793817f066291ed31c76ef017dea137ac0; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:39:00.092Z.