LAX92LA309 · Piper PA32-301T
Feverhelm Transportation Piper PA32-301T · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Catalina Airport (AVX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA309
- 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 PA32-301T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA32
- 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
- N83211
- Operator
- Feverhelm Transportation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Catalina Airport (AVX), Avalon, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 PILOT REPORTED THAT WHILE ON THE DOWNWIND LEG THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT'S ATTEMPTS TO RESTART THE ENGINE WERE UNSUCCESSFUL AND HE EXECUTED AN EMERGENCY LANDING TO THE RUNWAY. IN ORDER TO NEGOTIATE THE AIRPORT THE PILOT ANGLED TOWARDS THE RUNWAY. AFTER TOUCH DOWN THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO ALIGN THE AIRPLANE WITH THE RUNWAY AND EXITED THE RUNWAY AND COLLIDED WITH THE VISUAL APPROACH SLOPE INDICATOR LIGHTS BEFORE STOPPING. THE OPERATOR OPERATED THE ENGINE, SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT BUT COULD NOT RECALL IF THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS PROPERLY SELECTED TO A FUEL TANK. THE ACCIDENT WAS INITIALLY REPORTED AS AN INCIDENT. FURTHER EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PREEXISTING MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES AND THE CAUSE OF THE LOSS OF POWER COULD NOT BE DETERMINED.
Probable cause
AN ON GROUND COLLISION WITH TERRAIN SUBSEQUENT TO AN ENGINE FAILURE FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA309
- Event ID
- 20001211X15202
- Case number
- LAX92LA309
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-07-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7156be90d337bc2ab848651da4c6064bee3ab301c14508532baf263c521f909c; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:55:49.394Z.