LAX96LA039 · Cessna 402B
Cessna 402B · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM) to San Carlos Airport (SQL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA039
- 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 402B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N316HG
- Operator
- Donald A. Torres · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM), Compton, CATo San Carlos Airport (SQL), San Carlos, 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 pattern final
- 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 AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH AND THE PILOT PERFORMED A FORCED LANDING IN A MARSH SHORT OF THE AIRPORT. FAA INSPECTORS FOUND THE MAIN FUEL TANKS 3/4 FULL AND THE AUXILIARY AND WING LOCKER FUEL TANKS EMPTY. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT AS HE WAS DESCENDING THROUGH 1,200 FEET MSL ON FINAL APPROACH HE PLACED THE ELECTRIC FUEL PUMPS ON LOW AND WITHIN A FEW SECONDS HEARD A BACKFIRE AND LOST POWER ON BOTH ENGINES. HE VERIFIED ENGINE FUEL MIXTURE CONTROLS AND FUEL TANK SELECTOR FOR PROPER POSITION AND THEN EXECUTED AN OFF-AIRPORT FORCED LANDING. FAA INSPECTORS DETERMINED THE PILOT'S BIENNIAL FLIGHT REVIEW WAS 6 MONTHS PAST DUE.
Probable cause
the simultaneous total loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA039
- Event ID
- 20001207X04873
- Case number
- LAX96LA039
- 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 1995-11-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d8a6a594f6f1ac2d982ad1fc111f5e67862b3d56715e89e83079d91585dfe16e; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:01:03.911Z.