LAX99LA173 · Cessna 152
South Bay Aviation Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Zamperini Field (TOA) to P19
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA173
- 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 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N48845
- Operator
- South Bay Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, CATo P19
- 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 go-around
- 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)
- 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
- Tree(s); Utility pole
- 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, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a go-around about 100 feet agl, the pilot applied full power and pushed in the carburetor heat and the engine quit completely, with no coughing or sputtering. The pilot reported that he headed for a field about 15 degrees off the runway heading. The aircraft touched down in the field and impacted a berm, a tree, and finally a light post. During recovery operations as the airplane was being trailered to the airport, a steady stream of fuel flowed out of the bottom fuel sump. The aircraft was later moved to another location where approximately 1 gallon of fuel was found in the tanks. An examination of the engine was conducted following recovery of the aircraft. No mechanical discrepancies were found with the engine or fuel system components. Dark sooty deposits were found in the carburetor throat. The carburetor does not have an accelerator pump.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper use of the carburetor heat and throttle control (rapid movement), which induced an overly rich condition and a loss of power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA173
- Event ID
- 20001212X18804
- Case number
- LAX99LA173
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-05-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f8fd0c872e9fe96cd9394d772a30aa1311b2014297a146febfefe66cfc6c70e3; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:32:49.113Z.