LAX91LA089 · Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415C
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From an unrecorded airport to 0
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA089
- 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
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe (eng Research 415
- 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
- N99483
- Operator
- Bill Tyson
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From not recordedTo 0
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, not used
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT, WITH A PASSENGER, WAS CONDUCTING TOUCH AND GO LANDINGS TO EVALUATE THE AIRPLANE PRIOR TO A PURCHASE. THE PILOT HAD ACCUMULATED ABOUT 4 HOURS IN THE AIRPLANE IN THE PREVIOUS 7 DAYS. ON FINAL APPROACH AFTER EXECUTING SEVERAL TOUCH AND GO'S, THE ENGINE BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH AND THEN QUIT. THE PILOT MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN AN ALFALFA FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL-OUT, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A DITCH AND WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. THE AIRPLANE WAS IN THE PROCESS OF AN ANNUAL INSPECTION THAT WAS NOT COMPLETED. THE PREVIOUS ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS IN NOVEMBER OF 1988. METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE TO CARBURETOR ICING. THE PILOT DID NOT INDICATE THE USE OF CARBURETOR HEAT DURING THE DESCENT PHASE OF HIS LANDINGS. NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WERE FOUND.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO USE CARBURETOR HEAT IN CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE MAKE AND MODEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA089
- Event ID
- 20001212X16465
- Case number
- LAX91LA089
- 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: 68e40a10a683d0d7e8ed7b470568fadbfdf4a7f66a3cbfdfedd2041f0de48792; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:49:13.774Z.