LAX93LA196 · Dornier DO-28
Dornier DO-28 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Susanville Municipal Airport (SVE) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA196
- 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
Dornier DO-28
- Aircraft type
- Dornier DO-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
- N12828
- Operator
- Brian Esler
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Susanville Municipal Airport (SVE), Susanville, CATo 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
- En route · 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)
- 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
- 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 › Fuel consumption calculations, poor
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Paradise, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT ABOUT 20 MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT, THE LEFT ENGINE LOST POWER. HE TURNED THE LEFT FIREWALL MOUNTED ELECTRIC BOOST PUMP ON AND SELECTED LEFT AUX TANK. THE LEFT ENGINE REGAINED POWER. HE SELECTED THE RIGHT ENGINE TO RIGHT AUX TANK. AFTER 20-30 SECONDS BOTH ENGINES QUIT. HE WAS UNABLE TO RESTART EITHER ENGINE AND LANDED THE AIRPLANE IN HEAVY BRUSH AT ABOUT 40 KNOTS. THE FAA REPORTED THE PILOT STATED THAT HE MISMANAGED THE FUEL, AND WAITED TOO LONG TO SWITCH TANKS.
Probable cause
THE POOR IN FLIGHT FUEL CONSUMPTION CALCULATIONS BY THE PILOT AND THE PILOT'S IN FLIGHT DECISION NOT TO SWITCH FUEL TANKS WHICH CAUSED THE TOTAL FAILURE OF BOTH OF THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINES. FACTORS RELATING TO THIS ACCIDENT WERE FUEL STARVATION AND THE HIGH VEGETATION IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA196
- Event ID
- 20001211X12415
- Case number
- LAX93LA196
- 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: e6d70f706fa148291b174b913b622457343b227fadf19b0d5cbeb7733607ae8d; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:08:27.138Z.