LAX00LA189 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From El Tiro Gliderport (AZ67) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA189
- 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 PA-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N7345Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From El Tiro Gliderport (AZ67)To 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
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not complied with
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
It was the airplane's 15th flight of the day, but the pilot's first. When the tow pilot relieved the previous pilot, he received a briefing, which noted the previous flights, airplane performance, and fuel status, 1/4 full in the left tank and a full right tank. He was departing with a glider in tow when the engine sputtered, regained power, then sputtered again. He released the glider and attempted to switch to the right tank. The airplane collided with a fence at the end of the field. The original 150 horsepower engine was replaced by a 180 horsepower engine in accordance with a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC). It stated the left tank was the main tank, which was to be used for takeoff and landings, while the right tank was an auxiliary tank, which was to be used in level flight only. The STC also required a placard be placed on the left (main) fuel tank noting 'capacity 18 gallons, 9 gallons useable.' Another placard, which read 'EMPTY,' was to be placed on the left-hand fuel gauge at the original 1/2 full mark. These placards were noted in a supplement to the airplane flight manual. This supplement also noted in the limitations section 'Do not take off when left hand fuel tank gauge registers in the red area.'
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to refuel the airplane as required by the airplane's published flight manual resulting in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA189
- Event ID
- 20001212X21037
- Case number
- LAX00LA189
- 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: c39417fbcf664982f9dc78f5251b11df631e8e4c6f44adcf3839aa81c3e587f3; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:54:47.178Z.