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LAX92LA368 · Cessna 150M

28 Aug 1992 · Temecula, CA, United States

Armed Forces Flying Club Cessna 150M · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route

From F70 to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX92LA368
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

Cessna 150M

Aircraft type
Cessna 150
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
N211AF
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From F70To Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, 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 · climb to 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 (mechanical failure)
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

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
  • Exhaust system, muffler › Burst
  • Exhaust system, muffler › Eroded
  • Ignition system, magneto grounding lead (p-lead) › Melted
  • Ignition system, magneto grounding lead (p-lead) › Shorted

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Temecula, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT SAID THAT DURING CLIMB TO CRUISE THE ENGINE SUDDENLY QUIT COMPLETELY WITH A LOUD NOISE. THE INSTRUCTOR LANDED THE AIRCRAFT IN A FIELD AND THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER AFTER COLLIDING WITH A BERM. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED THAT THE REAR DOME OF THE LEFT MUFFLER HAD BLOWN OUT. SCORCHING AND EXHAUST STAINS WERE EVIDENT ON THE FIREWALL TO THE REAR OF THE MUFFLER AND WIRE BUNDLES ROUTED IN THIS AREA WERE FOUND BURNED WITH MELTED INSULATION NOTED. THE 'P' LEADS FOR THE MAGNETOS WERE FOUND ROUTED IN THIS WIRE BUNDLE. VISUAL EXAMINATION AND ELECTRICAL CONTINUITY CHECKS OF THE 'P' LEADS REVEALED THAT THE INTERNAL INSULATION HAD MELTED ALLOWING THE CONDUCTORS TO SHORT WITHIN THE WIRES. EXAMINATION OF THE MUFFLER REVEALED SEVERE INTERNAL EROSION, WITH HOLES THROUGH THE CABIN HEAT SHROUD. THE FAILED END OF THE MUFFLER WAS FOUND TO BE SEVERELY ERODED AROUND THE FAILURE POINT ON THE END PIECE, WITH SMALL HOLES AND EXTERNAL DISCOLORATION NOTED.

Probable cause

THE SHUTDOWN OF THE ENGINE DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE MUFFLER AND THE RESULTING HEAT INDUCED SHORTING OF THE MAGNETO GROUND WIRES, AND THE INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE INSPECTION OF THE MUFFLER AND THE ENGINE EXHAUST SYSTEM.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX92LA368
Event ID
20001211X15462
Case number
LAX92LA368
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: c3c9c84e9de8d5aa896147d1167dbbb8e584c48839ed359bd5123eb6cde13069; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:08:56.520Z.