LAX97LA129 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Ryan Field (RYN) to OL5
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97LA129
- 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 150L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N21993
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ryan Field (RYN), Tucson, AZTo OL5
- 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 · 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
- 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
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Pilot in command › Refueling, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot said that the power dropped, then returned to cruise rpm. About 30 to 40 seconds later the engine lost power again, regained power, and then dropped again. This cycle was repeated seven or eight times, with the pilot performing the emergency checklist procedures. The engine then stopped completely and the pilot made a forced landing during which the aircraft collided with trees. An engine run-up was conducted by an FAA inspector with no mechanical abnormalities found. The FAA inspector stated that a fuel sample was retrieved from the aircraft fuel tanks at the accident scene and appeared to be contaminated. As viewed, the sample had some water and debris in it, and was yellow in color. Particles of rust were also noted in the sample. The inspector reviewed the maintenance records and found that the owner had obtained an STC to use auto fuel in this aircraft. He reported that 'the sample smelled like a mixture of auto fuel and aviation fuel. . .[and]. . .neither of these fuels are yellow in color.' The aircraft owner/pilot stated to the inspector that he has a barrel of fuel at his hangar from which he refuels the aircraft.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power due to fuel contamination resulting from the pilot's inadequate fuel storage and filtering procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97LA129
- Event ID
- 20001208X07581
- Case number
- LAX97LA129
- 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: 49e2f5a4c4477961255807a9c7082c282cb4608679adf31af5dadb6f94785bfb; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:11:11.064Z.