LAX91LA361 · Cessna 172G
Kainoa Aviation Cessna 172G · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Hana Airport (HNM) to Hilo International Airport (ITO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA361
- 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 172G
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N5921R
- Operator
- Kainoa Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hana Airport (HNM), Hana, MAUI, HITo Hilo International Airport (ITO), Hilo, HI
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 exhaustion
- 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, fuel › Exhaustion
- Performance data › Inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Information unavailable
- Propeller system/accessories
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
LESS THAN ONE GALLON OF FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE COMBINED FUEL SYSTEM. THE PILOT SAID HE PLANNED HIS FLIGHT AND FUEL REQUIRED PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. HE PRODUCED THE FLIGHT PLANNING DOCUMENT FOR FAA INSPECTORS, WHO CONFIRMED THE PLAN ACCURATELY DETAILED THE TRIP. FAA INSPECTORS FOUND THAT A MCCAULEY 1C172EM7649 PROPELLER WAS INSTALLED. THE PERFORMANCE CHART IN THE POH WERE BASED ON EITHER A 7653 OR 7651 PROPELLER BEING INSTALLED ON THE AIRCRAFT. THE FAA DETERMINED THAT THE MCCAULEY 7649 PROPELLER IS AN ALLOWABLE INSTALLATION ON THE AIRCRAFT ALTHOUGH IT IS A NON STANDARD ONE. ACCORDING TO THE FAA, THE 7649 PROPELLER WOULD AFFECT THE PERFORMANCE OF THE AIRCRAFT. REVIEW OF THE AIRCRAFT RECORDS REVEALED THAT THE PROPELLER WAS INSTALLED BY A PREVIOUS OWNER, AND THE CURRENT OWNER WAS UNAWARE OF THE NON STANDARD PROPELLER INSTALLATION AND ITS INVALIDATION OF THE PERFORMANCE CHARTS.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO THE INSTALLATION OF A NON STANDARD PROPELLER FOR WHICH NO PERFORMANCE CHARTS WERE AVAILABLE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA361
- Event ID
- 20001212X17903
- Case number
- LAX91LA361
- 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: fcc4673f6cb9fde15a850d3a0990f0ec3e43a1d2a5cbbf10279863da32a66b95; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:47:13.785Z.