LAX92LA324 · Piper PA-38-112
California Aviation Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA324
- 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2519N
- Operator
- California Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB), Paso Robles, 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 · descent
- 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 exhaustion; Tree(s)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE STUDENT'S STATEMENT, THE AIRCRAFT WAS ABOUT 5 MILES OUT FROM THE AIRPORT DESCENDING TOWARD THE TRAFFIC PATTERN WHEN THE ENGINE SUDDENLY BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH AND QUIT INTERMITTENTLY. THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO AFFECT AN ENGINE RESTART AND THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH ORANGE TREES ABOUT ONE HALF MILE SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. THE STUDENT PILOT WAS ON A SOLO CROSS COUNTRY ROUND ROBIN FLIGHT FROM VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, WITH PLANNED STOPS AT PASO ROBLES AND PORTERVILLE FOR A TOTAL DISTANCE OF ABOUT 400 STATUTE MILES. THE DISTANCE FLOWN FROM VAN NUYS TO PORTERVILLE WITH THE STOP AT PASO ROBLES WAS ABOUT 270 MILES. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE STUDENT DEPARTED PASO ROBLES AT ABOUT 1645 HOURS FOR PORTERVILLE AND DID NOT REFUEL THE AIRCRAFT AT PASO ROBLES. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTORS WHO FOUND NO FUEL IN THE FUEL LINES OR CARBURETOR BOWL. NO FUEL SPILLAGE OR ODOR WAS DETECTED IN THE SOIL BENEATH THE AIRCRAFT. THE FUEL TANKS WERE RUPTURED IN THE IMPACT SEQUENCE WITH THE ORANGE TREES.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO THE STUDENT PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT AND INFLIGHT PLANNING, AND THE FAILURE TO REFUEL THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA324
- Event ID
- 20001211X15216
- Case number
- LAX92LA324
- 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 1992-07-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 795b4ab981b5545bbee82115e38952c36e921df0c4a0d6e819b6e3010f57ac1c; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:52:35.893Z.