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Adventure Airlines Cessna 402C accident

19 Jun 1992 · Meadview, AZ, United States

Cessna 402C · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb

From Rittenhouse Army Heliport (AZ38) to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)

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Event

NTSB case
DCA92MA040
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
10 · 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
Charter & commuter
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 402C

Aircraft type
Cessna 402
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
N2715X
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Rittenhouse Army Heliport (AZ38)To Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
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
Loss of engine power
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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not followed
  • Pilot in command › Propeller feathering, not attained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

PLT BEGAN TAKEOFF ON A 5200-FT DIRT RWY (UPSLOPE TO THE SOUTH, ELEV 4775 FT) WITH WIND FROM THE SOUTH AT 18-20 KTS, DENSITY ALT ABOUT 7250 FT. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE ACFT TAKING OFF, WITH THE LANDING GEAR RETRACTING AS IT PASSED THEIR PSN. SOON THEREAFTER, THE PLT TRANSMITTED HE HAD 'A PROBLEM.' ACFT WAS THEN SEEN ABOUT 200-300 FT AGL IN RIGHT TURN, WHICH PROGRESSED INTO A DIVE. ACFT IMPACTED IN FLAT ATTITUDE 1/2 MI SOUTH OF RWY 17. PSGR VIDEO TAPES REVEALED PROPS WENT OUT OF SYNC ABOUT 6 SEC ATER TAKEOFF. ABOUT 15 SEC LATER, RIGHT PROP SLOWED UNTIL BLADES COULD BE SEEN TURNING. VIDEO SHOWED ONE ENG FUEL FLOW AT ABOUT 90 GPH, OTR ENG AT MIN SETTING (ABT 3 PSI), 5 DEG INCREASE IN PITCH ATTITUDE. EXAM REVEALED RGT ENG DRIVEN FUEL PUMP DRIVE COUPLING WAS SCORED AND ONLY PARTIALLY ENGAGED. SB ME88 3 COMPLIED WITH; AUX FUEL PUMP SWS FOUND IN LOW PSN. RGT PROP BLADES FND AT FINE PITCH, LACKING ROTATIONAL DMG. LNDG GEAR FND UP, BUT UNLOCKED; FLAPS EXTDD 15 DEG. EMERG PROC TRNG DID NOT REPLICATE HI DENSITY ALT AND MAX GROSS WEIGHT PERFORMANCE.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURE (ENGINE FAILURE AFTER TAKEOFF) AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN MINIMUM CONTROL SPEED (VMC), WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE FAILURE (DISENGAGEMENT) OF THE RIGHT ENGINE FUEL PUMP DRIVE COUPLING, HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, AND THE LACK OF COMPANY TRAINING CONCERNING AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE IN CONDITIONS OF HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE AND HEAVY GROSS WEIGHT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DCA92MA040
Event ID
20001211X14831
Case number
DCA92MA040
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: 7c1f01610e6f55fbe856fadf5a0389a74c37c6867cc216f0a0660bafcf8dc9d7; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:57:59.338Z.