LAX98LA157 · Piper PA-22-160
Piper PA-22-160 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC) to C14
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98LA157
- 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
Piper PA-22-160
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N198TP
- Operator
- Michael S. Pavao · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), Sacramento, CATo C14
- 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 pattern turn to base
- 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 prior to taking off for the planned 10-minute-long flight both fuel tanks contained over 5 gallons of fuel, and all airplane systems were functioning normally. The pilot arrived at his destination airport and entered the traffic pattern. Carburetor heat was applied, the throttle was retarded, and the airplane descended. After turning onto the base leg the pilot moved the throttle forward to increase engine power, and the engine 'blubbered and totally lost power.' Unable to glide to the runway, the pilot made a forced landing in a soft field adjacent to the airport, and the airplane nosed over. The FAA coordinator responded to the accident site and examined the wreckage. The FAA reported it examined the powerplant, induction system, engine controls, and magnetos. The ignition switch and the carburetor were also functionally examined. No evidence was found of any mechanical malfunctions. The reason for the interruption of engine power was not determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power for undetermined non-mechanical reasons. A contributing factor in the landing nose-over was the presence of the soft terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98LA157
- Event ID
- 20001211X10126
- Case number
- LAX98LA157
- 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 1998-05-15.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d0c9970dec23936263bf858e76424d5546c41e550018b72bf8999a54eb3b1418; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:50:57.652Z.