LAX91LA274 · Ryan ST3KR
Ryan ST3KR · Accident en route
From Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX) to Santa Paula Airport (SZP)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA274
- 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
Ryan ST3KR
- Aircraft type
- Ryan ST3
- 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
- N46795
- Operator
- Sullivan, Michael D. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX), Santa Maria, CATo Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, 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 · 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, WHILE THE AIRCRAFT WAS ON THE GROUND AT SANTA MARIA HE TURNED OFF THE OIL SUPPLY VALVE. DURING THE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION FOR THE TO FLIGHT SANTA PAULA HE SAID HE FORGOT TO TURN THE OIL SUPPLY VALVE BACK TO THE ON POSITION. ABOUT 20 MINUTES AFTER TAKEOFF HE NOTICED THE OIL PRESSURE WAS READING ZERO AND THE ENGINE WAS STARTING TO RUN HOT. THE PILOT SAID HE FELT HE COULD NOT SAFELY RETURN TO THE AIRPORT AND ELECTED TO MAKE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING ON A COUNTRY ROAD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL OUT, A WING TIP STRUCK A FENCE.
Probable cause
OIL STARVATION DUE TO THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY CONFIGURE THE AIRCRAFT FOR THE FLIGHT DURING THE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA274
- Event ID
- 20001212X17324
- Case number
- LAX91LA274
- 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: 0db4b4a4459320257a7c2964b33fd3ebe81f0100ea790940f0fd7f1709b34afd; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:04:05.817Z.