LAX98LA250 · Cessna 177
Cessna 177 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From AJO to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98LA250
- 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 177
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N177JH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From AJOTo 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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 starvation; 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, fuel shutoff › Not safetied
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Not secured
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, compliance with ad, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Corona, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot aborted the first takeoff due to a rough running engine. He performed a run-up, determined that the engine seemed normal, and returned for another takeoff. After liftoff, the engine began to lose rpm and the pilot had difficulty gaining altitude. About 100 feet agl, he turned toward a grassy area parallel to the runway. The aircraft collided with the trees and came to rest upright on the ground. The Safety Board conducted a run-up of the engine. No abnormal sounds were noted at 2,000 rpm, but at full throttle, the engine began to run rough and the fuel pressure gauge was at or near the low scale indication. The aircraft has a separate fuel shutoff valve independent of the fuel selector. The shutoff valve is operated by a control knob near the pilot's right knee. It was noted that the fuel shutoff valve follower handle was partially closed at the valve while the control knob was in the ON position. The firewall-mounted clamp that secures the cable housing was loose and the cable housing was able to slide back and forth in the clamp. The valve could be hand actuated from the on to off position without any significant movement of the control knob. With the fuel shutoff valve properly configured and in the full on position, another engine run-up was conducted to full power with and without the auxiliary fuel pump. AD 70-24-04 concerning the fuel shutoff valve was complied with in 1984 by installation of Cessna Kit No. SK117-10. The fuel shutoff control knob is required to be safetied in the 'on' position. No safety wire was in place and no hole was drilled in the subject knob to accommodate the wire.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to a partially closed fuel shutoff valve as a result of improper maintenance installation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98LA250
- Event ID
- 20001211X10647
- Case number
- LAX98LA250
- 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: 49c9af032e4856a8b582aa73babd763195d66b70efabeaa8a499bc8a773073e8; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:44:23.745Z.