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LAX92LA369 · Piper PA-28-140

28 Aug 1992 · Atwater, CA, United States

Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
LAX92LA369
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-28-140

Aircraft type
Piper PA-28
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
N7250F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained
  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

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

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT SAID THAT THE FLIGHT DEPARTED RUNWAY 30 AND AT ABOUT 900 FEET DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB THE ENGINE POWER LEVEL SMOOTHLY REDUCED TO ABOUT 2,000 RPM. THE PILOT NOTED THAT THERE WAS NO ROUGHNESS ASSOCIATED WITH THE POWER LOSS. THE PILOT SAID SHE WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE TERRAIN AHEAD AND ELECTED TO PERFORM A 180 DEGREE TURN AND LAND DOWN WIND ON RUNWAY 12. THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT TWO THIRDS OF THE WAY DOWN THE RUNWAY AND THE PILOT THOUGHT THE AIRCRAFT COULD NOT BE STOPPED PRIOR TO COLLIDING WITH A FENCE AT THE RUNWAY END. SHE SAID SHE ADDED ALL AVAILABLE POWER AND THE AIRCRAFT LIFTED OFF AND OVER THE FENCE. THE AIRCRAFT THEN SETTLED BACK TO THE GROUND AND COLLIDED WITH TWO CORAL FENCES ABOUT ONE QUARTER OF A MILE BEYOND THE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT SAID THE WINDS AT THE TIME WERE FROM ABOUT 310 DEGREES AT ABOUT 10 KNOTS. THE ENGINE AND AIRFRAME WERE EXAMINED BY FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTORS WHO DID NOT FIND EVIDENCE TO EXPLAIN THE REPORTED LOSS OF POWER.

Probable cause

THE PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS AND THE PILOTS FAILURE TO ATTAIN THE PROPER TOUCHDOWN POINT DURING THE SUBSEQUENT FORCED LANDING ATTEMPT BACK ON THE RUNWAY. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT WERE THE TAIL WIND CONDITION ENCOUNTERED DURING THE LANDING ATTEMPT AND THE SHORT NATURE OF THE RUNWAY.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX92LA369
Event ID
20001211X15463
Case number
LAX92LA369
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 1992-08-29.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: a8457d22bf5627eb7303fd1f3f9f44f98a2dc32f52cf8b5e89a12f3107c16952; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:42:41.441Z.