LAX92LA020 · Piper PA28-161
Chandler Air Service Piper PA28-161 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA020
- 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 PA28-161
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N8092A
- Operator
- Chandler Air Service
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Open
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT, THE SOLE OCCUPANT, WAS DEPARTING THE AIRPORT ON A PERSONAL FLIGHT IN THE LOCAL AREA. THE ENGINE BEGAN TO SPUTTER AND LOSE POWER SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF AT ABOUT 200 FT AGL. THE PILOT SELECTED AN EMERGENCY LANDING AREA ON A ROAD AT THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. DUE TO POWER LINES ACROSS THE INTENDED LANDING AREA, THE PILOT SELECTED A ROAD PARALLELING AN IRRIGATION DITCH. AFTER CLEARING THE POWER LINES, THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ON THE ROAD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE LEFT WING STRUCK A SIGN, CAUSING THE AIRPLANE TO SWERVE INTO THE IRRIGATION DITCH. THE AIRPLANE WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED AND THE PILOT RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES. A POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT TWO CYLINDERS HAD LITTLE OR NO COMPRESSION. BOTH CYLINDERS HAD VALVES STUCK IN THE OPEN POSITION.
Probable cause
AN ENGINE MALFUNCTION PRODUCED BY EXHAUST VALVES STUCK IN THE OPEN POSITION. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS AN UNSUITABLE LANDING AREA AND A SIGN ADJACENT TO THE LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA020
- Event ID
- 20001212X18329
- Case number
- LAX92LA020
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: be462794a68db29e7afdc46c16d150be729c7367bd8be02df58d39a1a55b9687; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:35:07.554Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: reported minor injuries. The narrative states the private pilot was "THE SOLE OCCUPANT" and that "THE PILOT RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES"; the record counted no injuries.