LAX92LA409 · Cessna 310D
Rebuilt Aircraft & Salvage Cessna 310D · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From 0 · Carson City, NV to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA409
- 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 310D
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N6755T
- Operator
- Rebuilt Aircraft & Salvage
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 0 · Carson City, NVTo 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 final
- 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
- Partial 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 starvation
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT HAD NOT BEEN FLOWN OR THE ENGINES RUN IN TWELVE YEARS. BEFORE DEPARTING ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT THE PILOT AND AN A&P MECHANIC INSPECTED THE AIRCRAFT. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF THE RIGHT ENGINE QUIT AND THE LEFT ENGINE BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH. THE PILOT WAS ABLE TO RESTART THE RIGHT ENGINE AND MANAGED TO KEEP THE LEFT ENGINE RUNNING BY ADJUSTING THE MIXTURE. WHILE ON DOWNWIND FOR RUNWAY 16 AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT THE RIGHT ENGINE BEGAN TO LOSE POWER. THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND DOWNWIND ON RUNWAY 34. WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH TO RUNWAY 34 THE PILOT OBSERVED AN AIRCRAFT LANDING ON THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. AT THIS TIME BOTH ENGINES BEGAN TO LOSE POWER AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO EXECUTE AN OFF AIRPORT LANDING. THE PILOT LANDED IN A SCRUB BRUSH COVERED, OPEN FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE AIRCRAFT CROSSED A ROAD AND COLLIDED WITH A ROAD MARKER. THE EXAMINATION OF BOTH ENGINES REVEALED THAT BOTH ENGINES' FUEL CONTROL SERVO AND MAIN FUEL SYSTEM SCREENS WERE DIRTY AND PARTIALLY PLUGGED. THE LEFT ENGINE DISTRIBUTOR VALVE PISTON WAS SEIZED AND CONTAINED REMNANTS OF THE FUEL TANKS BLADDER.
Probable cause
PILOT'S AND MECHANIC'S INADEQUATE INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT AND THE PILOT'S POOR INFLIGHT DECISION BY NOT RETURNING TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT AFTER EXPERIENCING THE INITIAL ENGINE LOSS OF POWER ON TAKEOFF. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS FUEL STARVATION DUE TO FUEL SYSTEM CONTAMINATION, THE HIGH VEGETATION, AND THE ROAD SIGN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA409
- Event ID
- 20001211X15741
- Case number
- LAX92LA409
- 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: 3f7260daf3fd6cd8e070de6f3a02452c9efe46242e3a393b40ff1bd733f88367; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:06:57.137Z.