LAX96LA281 · Graham FALCON XP
Graham FALCON XP · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From FFZ to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA281
- 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
Graham FALCON XP
- Aircraft type
- Graham FALCON XP
- 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
- N647AA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FFZTo 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system, cap › Overtorque
- Fuel system, vent › Blocked(total)
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After takeoff, the pilot remained in the traffic pattern and initiated a go-around after the first landing. During the initial climb, the engine decelerated to idle, then lost all power. The pilot attempted to return to the airport, but was unable. The airplane was damaged during a forced landing in an orange grove. During an examination after the accident, no mechanical failure or malfunction was found with the engine or any of the engine components. The airplane's fuel system tank vent in the fuel cap was found closed. The design of the cap consisted of a rubber stopper that was squeezed by a threaded wing bolt. A small hole in the stopper served as a vent. When squeezing pressure was applied to the rubber stopper by turning the wing nut, the wall would expand, decreasing the size of the fuel system vent. Excessive tightening of the wing nut would squeeze the vent closed. The pilot had only about 4 hours of flight time in this make/model of airplane.
Probable cause
blockage of the fuel system vent in the fuel cap, when the pilot overtorqued the fuel cap during his preflight check, which restricted fuel flow to the engine. The pilot's lack of experience in the make and model of airplane was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA281
- Event ID
- 20001208X06293
- Case number
- LAX96LA281
- 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: d8693e0a3d16a82df56ecd5d93b607d127f7ace580d30971e6c8aee19e11d57c; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:47:12.615Z.