LAX92LA232 · Wayne K. Giles GLASAIR GARG GLASAIR GA
Wayne K. Giles GLASAIR GARG GLASAIR GA · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Zamperini Field (TOA) to Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA232
- 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
Wayne K. Giles GLASAIR GARG GLASAIR GA
- Aircraft type
- Wayne K Giles GLASAIR GARG
- 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
- N555HV
- Operator
- Harold J. Ballatin · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, CATo Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV), Porterville, 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT WHILE CRUISING IN THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRPLANE HE SMELLED THE STRONG ODOR OF FUEL FUMES IN THE COCKPIT. WHEN HE SWITCHED FUEL TANKS TO ABATE [THE] FUMES ALL ENGINE POWER WAS SUDDENLY LOST. UNABLE TO RESTART THE ENGINE, THE PILOT INDICATED HE BEGAN CONCENTRATING ON MAKING A FORCED LANDING. ON FINAL APPROACH TO A PARKING LOT, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH UNOBSERVED POWER LINES AND NOSED OVER. AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF ANY MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WITHIN THE ENGINE. FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE LINES BETWEEN THE ENGINE DRIVEN FUEL PUMP AND FUEL SERVO, AND IN THE MANIFOLD ASSEMBLY. EVIDENCE WAS ALSO FOUND OF PREIMPACT FUEL LEAKS (SEEPING AND STAINING) NEAR FUEL LINES AND FITTINGS IN AIRFRAME STRUCTURE AFT OF THE FIREWALL. THE LAST ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY THE AIRPLANE'S PREVIOUS OWNER.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER BECAUSE OF AN UNDETERMINED INTERRUPTION IN THE FLOW OF FUEL TO THE ENGINE. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE POWER LOSS WERE RELATED TO FUEL LINE OR FITTING LEAKS AND TO INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE OF THE FUEL SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA232
- Event ID
- 20001211X14896
- Case number
- LAX92LA232
- 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: 91c678f0a564ed9d119df735c5ac0b8c52e6ec85075cbe3b8bd9ad4e710fa7f6; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:57:35.069Z.