LAX97FA272 · Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20
Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Monterey Regional Airport (MRY) to Hesperia Airport (L26)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97FA272
- 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
- 3 · 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
Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N8227Q
- Operator
- Brett R. Allen · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Monterey Regional Airport (MRY), San Jose, CATo Hesperia Airport (L26), 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 go-around
- 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
- Partial 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
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Following a go-around in high density altitude conditions, the airplane was observed to enter a shallow climb. It then turned approximately 20 degrees to the right and followed a wide depression in the surrounding terrain without any noticeable gain in altitude. While following this depression, three packages (luggage) were observed being thrown from the right side of the aircraft. After the third package was thrown, the aircraft flew into high voltage power lines, which ran perpendicular to the depression at an altitude of approximately 75 to 100 feet agl. The aircraft then impacted the ground and was destroyed by fire. There were no orange balls or other visually alerting devices attached to the power lines, as the power lines were not in a location normally used by low flying aircraft. A teardown inspection of the engine did not disclose any mechanical malfunction or abnormal wear; however, the exhaust muffler for the No. 2 and No. 4 cylinders had a partially collapsed internal baffle. Density altitude was about 7,200 feet. Aircraft performance charts indicated that at that altitude, the engine would have been developing only 72 percent of its rated power.
Probable cause
failure of the pilot to see-and-avoid high voltage power lines, while coping with a lack of engine power during a go-around in a high density altitude condition. Factors relating to the accident were: high density altitude that resulted in a normal reduction of engine power; partial obstruction in the exhaust system that resulted in an additional loss of power; and the encounter with power lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97FA272
- Event ID
- 20001208X08660
- Case number
- LAX97FA272
- 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: ac25402e642a1cadd47db0f26518f9713f76707a14c63da7f97ba777af2ce2b2; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:52:12.421Z.