LAX97LA182 · Ayres S2R-T-34
Ayres S2R-T-34 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Buckeye, AZ to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97LA182
- 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
Ayres S2R-T-34
- Aircraft type
- Ayres S2
- 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
- N4011G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Buckeye, AZTo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
- Fuel system, fuel control › Excessive flow/output
- Turbine assembly › Overtemperature
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was en route back to his landing strip after night spraying when the aircraft lost engine power. He also saw flames and debris coming from the exhaust stacks. The circuit breaker popped when he attempted to turn on the wing lights so he continued the approach without lights. During rollout, the aircraft struck an unseen irrigation ditch and the gear collapsed. An inspection showed evidence of heat and blade damage to the power turbine. The fuel control adjustment was found in the full rich position. There was no evidence of FOD to the compressor rotor and stator assemblies. The engine had a hot section inspection as a result of a previous sudden engine stoppage incident.
Probable cause
the failure of the power turbine due to an overtemperature condition created by an improperly adjusted fuel control. A factor in the accident was the tripped circuit breaker which prevented the wing lights from operating during the forced night landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97LA182
- Event ID
- 20001208X07951
- Case number
- LAX97LA182
- 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 1997-05-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 836099140fd7fec6a608a2e3f9d2e61088c09d43f073bd6a67fe4dfc40eb4b04; retrieved 2026-09-22T19:45:46.453Z.