LAX93FA103 · Piper PA-23-150
Piper PA-23-150 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Ryan Field (RYN)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93FA103
- 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-23-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N2144P
- Operator
- R.Finkenbine & R. Kestler
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Ryan Field (RYN), Tucson, AZ
- 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 (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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Fuel system, carburetor › Blocked(partial)
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Eloy, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE 1ST TAKEOFF ROLL, THERE WAS A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND THE PILOT ABORTED THE TAKEOFF. HE TAXIED BACK AND RAN UP THE ENGINES. THE LEFT ENGINE WAS RUN UP THREE TIMES UNTIL THE 'PUFFING (OR POPPING) NOISES' WERE NO LONGER HEARD, AND THE PILOT COMMENCED ANOTHER TAKEOFF. WITNESSES REPORTED HEARING ONE OR MORE ENGINES SPUTTER DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE LOST LEFT ENGINE POWER WITHIN 300 FT AGL. HE MADE A STEEP BANK LEFT TURN BACK TOWARD THE AIRPORT, LOST CONTROL, AND COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. THE LEFT ENGINE AND CARBURETOR ASSEMBLY WERE SUCCESSFULLY TEST RUN. CLEAR, BLUE COLORED FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE LEFT ENGINE'S CARBURETOR AND GASCOLATOR, AND IN THE RIGHT MAIN FUEL TANK. CLOUDY, GREEN COLORED SEDIMENT LADEN FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE RIGHT ENGINE'S CARBURETOR, AND IN THE RIGHT ENGINE DRIVEN AND AUXILIARY FUEL PUMPS. A FOREIGN SUBSTANCE, WHICH WAS LABORATORY IDENTIFIED AS BEING POLYSTYRENE, WAS FOUND ADHERED TO THE INSIDE OF THE RIGHT ENGINE'S VENTURI.
Probable cause
PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL SYSTEM CONTAMINATION AND A PARTIALLY OBSTRUCTED CARBURETOR VENTURI, AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93FA103
- Event ID
- 20001211X11710
- Case number
- LAX93FA103
- 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 1993-01-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7f05313a2f0baf17319e689d1f9211be680bddbf7609f3d4ba01f5086c6ff328; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:34:30.088Z.