LAX93LA138 · Piper PA-28-161
Chandler Air Service Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From P10 to P10
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA138
- 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-28-161
- 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
- N975MA
- Operator
- Chandler Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From P10To P10
- 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
- En route · climb to 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 (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 CFI AND STUDENT WERE PRACTICING A SIMULATED POWER-OFF FORCED LANDING. THE CFI REPORTED THAT AT ABOUT 300 FEET AGL, WHEN THE EXERCISE WAS ENDED AND THE STUDENT APPLIED POWER TO GO AROUND, THE ENGINE QUIT AFTER THE CARBURETOR HEAT CONTROL WAS MOVED TO THE OFF POSITION. BOTH PILOTS REPORTED THAT ATTEMPTS TO RESTART THE ENGINE, INCLUDING TURNING THE CARBURETOR HEAT CONTROL BACK TO THE ON POSITION AND MOVING THE FUEL SELECTOR TO ANOTHER TANK, WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. DURING THE EMERGENCY LANDING IN A FIELD, THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED SOFT AND UNEVEN TERRAIN. THE LEFT MAIN GEAR SEPARATED FROM THE AIRCRAFT AND THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTORS SOME TIME AFTER THE ACCIDENT. ONE OF THE INSPECTORS EXAMINED THE WRECKAGE AFTER IT WAS REMOVED FROM THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE RESULTS OF THE INSPECTION REVEALED CONTINUITY OF THE FUEL SYSTEM TO THE FUEL STRAINER, WHICH WAS LOOSE AND DID NOT CONTAIN A SAFETY WIRE. FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE CARBURETOR. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO THE LEFT FUEL TANK.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA138
- Event ID
- 20001211X11859
- Case number
- LAX93LA138
- 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: 2dfd1fae20a58de1387d7d4886efa96c7290bed5d8b11f9713fdc544b4b4f32f; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:17:57.510Z.