LAX92LA083 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA) to San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA083
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N2638R
- Operator
- Cook, John D. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA), Santa Barbara, CATo San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, CA
- 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; Wire, transmission
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PIPER PA 28R-200, COLLIDED WITH WIRES DURING A FORCED LANDING AFTER SUSTAINING A LOSS OF ENG POWER. THE AIRPLANE LOST ENG POWER WHILE FLYING ABOUT 700 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND LEVEL. THE PLT THEN SWITCHED FUEL TANKS AND THE AIRPLANE REGAINED ENG POWER. THE ENG LOST POWER AGAIN AND THE PLT WAS FORCED TO LAND. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK WIRES DURING THE FINAL APPROACH, AND THEN STRUCK A TRUCK INJURING THE DRIVER. THE PLT INDICATED HE COMPLETED HIS PREFLIGHT CHECKS BEFORE TAKEOFF AND NOTED THERE WAS NO FUEL IN THE AIRPLANE'S RIGHT TANK, BUT ADEQUATE FUEL IN THE LEFT TANK TO COMPLETE THE FLIGHT. THE AIRPLANE LEFT FUEL TANK HAD ABOUT 15 GALLONS OF FUEL REMAINING. THE RIGHT WING WAS SEVERED AND THE RIGHT FUEL TANK RUPTURED. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE HAD SWITCHED TANKS BEFORE THE ENGINE FAILURE WHICH CAUSED THE ENGINE TO FAIL DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY FUEL SPILL AT THE ACCIDENT SITE. AN ENG EXAM AND OPERATION TEST WAS CONDUCTED. THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL DEFICIENCIES OR MALFUNCTIONS NOTED. ON THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, THE ENG QUIT DURING A FLIGHT AND WAS RESTARTED. THE PLT DID NOT DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF THE INITIAL ENG FAILURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE FUEL SELECTOR BY SELECTING AN EMPTY TANK. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S DECISION TO OPERATE THE AIRPLANE WITH A KNOWN DEFICIENCY WITHOUT HAVING MAINTENANCE PERFORMED TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF A PREVIOUS LOSS OF ENGINE POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA083
- Event ID
- 20001211X14006
- Case number
- LAX92LA083
- 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: f5ce4a0c6d9ae0f074b1d9c2c69a6925bc4b020524c87abf7dc2cabf0e2e6f8a; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:21:55.169Z.