LAX96LA216 · Rockwell 112TCA
Rockwell 112TCA · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA216
- 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
Rockwell 112TCA
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell 112
- 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
- N4674W
- Operator
- Walter R. Robinette · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF), Twin Falls, ID
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 reported that he performed a preflight inspection of the airplane; no water or foreign material was observed in the fuel, and he started the engine without difficulty. After performing a run-up during which no anomalies were observed, the pilot commenced taking off from the gravel road. The airplane climbed 50 feet above the road, and then a total loss of engine power was experienced. The available roadway was not suitable for the pilot to use in terminating the flight, and the airplane crashed into nearby rough terrain. A witness reported that during the takeoff the airplane's engine sputtered and a plume of black colored exhaust smoke was noted. The airplane was recovered from the accident site and examined by an FAA inspector. The FAA inspector reported that over 40 gallons of fuel was found in the tanks, compression was measured in all cylinders, the spark plugs appeared in new condition but were heavily sooted, and the magnetos rotated and produced spark. In summary, all examined items looked normal or were impact damaged. No evidence of a mechanical malfunction was found.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power for undetermined nonmechanical reasons. A contributing factor was the lack of suitable terrain for use during an aborted takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA216
- Event ID
- 20001208X05826
- Case number
- LAX96LA216
- 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: 67ccb09262f574b3f96f503744316ebb12d77da876c1a4c05073f0c530d18738; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:24:13.763Z.