LAX00FA126 · Cessna 182Q
Cessna 182Q · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Fallbrook Community Airpark (L18) to Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00FA126
- 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
- 1 · 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 182Q
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N95996
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fallbrook Community Airpark (L18), Fallbrook, CATo Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), San Jose, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Airspeed(vso) › Not maintained
- Fluid › Starvation
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Not activated
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Checklist, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness observed the airplane taxi from the pilot's hangar to the runway without conducting an engine run-up. Shortly after takeoff, the engine lost power. Witnesses reported that the airplane cleared utility lines and then pitched nose down, impacting terrain in a nose low attitude. The passenger stated that she didn't think that the private pilot performed an engine run-up prior to takeoff. She added that after the engine lost power, the pilot reached down to the lower section of the center column area and turned something. The fuel selector valve is located on the bottom of the center control column and is operated by manually rotating the selector valve handle to one of the four positions; OFF, LEFT, BOTH, and RIGHT. The fuel selector valve was found in the left fuel tank position. Fuel was found in the fuel line immediately upstream of the boost pump, however, no fuel was found between the gascolator and the boost pump. The airplane had been modified by STC for a Continental IO-550 engine; part of the installation involved installing a 1-quart capacity header tank between the selector and fuel control unit. The engine was operated on a test stand and no anomalies were noted that would have prevented its operation. One of the witnesses was also an acquaintance of the pilot and reported that the pilot was in the habit of turning the fuel selector to the off position when the he hangared his aircraft. This was due to instances in the past in which fuel had leaked on his hangar floor when the fuel selector had not been turned off. He added that the pilot experienced a loss of engine power while taxiing in the past due to the fuel selector being in the off position. The Preflight Inspection, Before Starting Engine, and Before Takeoff checklists instruct the pilot to place the fuel selector valve in the on or both position. Toxicological tests on the pilot were positive for paroxetine, and verapamil. Paroxetine is a prescription antidepressant drug and verapamil is a prescription medication for high blood pressure. The paroxetine is not approved by the FAA for use during flight; however current medical literature shows the drug does not appear to have adverse performance effects when taken in therapeutic dosages. The subtle effects of higher than normal doses have not been systematically investigated, though symptoms of over dosages have been reported to include sedation and dizziness. The pilot did not report the use of the aforementioned medications on his last application for an airman medical certificate.
Probable cause
the loss of engine power resulting from fuel starvation due to the pilot's inadequate pre-flight inspection, inadequate performance of the pre-takeoff checklist, and failure to ensure that the fuel selector was properly positioned prior to takeoff. Also causal was the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed while attempting to clear a power line during the ensuing forced landing, which resulted in an inadvertent stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00FA126
- Event ID
- 20001212X20658
- Case number
- LAX00FA126
- 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, coordinates. 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: de239c1dfaf8885cdcab7e84edd9c421b98072c77b1c4a79079a3c7dad630d29; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:24:27.786Z.