LAX00LA336 · Piper PA-28-161
DGV Holdings Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT) to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA336
- 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-28-161
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N381AS
- Operator
- DGV Holdings
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)To Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane struck the airport perimeter fence and came to rest inverted after initiating a turn back to the runway for an emergency landing due to a loss of engine power. No discrepancies were found during the preflight inspection or the startup, run-up, or pretakeoff procedures. During the initial climb out the engine began to sputter. The CFI took control of the airplane and verified that the fuel pump was on, throttle was full forward, and the mixture was rich. The engine sputtered again and he noted that the fuel pressure gage was indicating zero. During the turn back to the runway the airplane lost altitude. A post crash engine inspection and run-up were conducted. No discrepancies were noted with the visual inspection of the engine. A remote fuel source was attached to the fuel line on the left wing to facilitate an engine run-up. The electric fuel pump was engaged and fuel pressure was observed on the fuel pressure gage. No visible fuel leaks were observed on the engine. The engine was started per manufacturer's checklist and a warm up period was initiated. After the warm up period the throttle was advanced to full power with no discrepancies noted.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain available for a straight ahead landing during the takeoff initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA336
- Event ID
- 20001212X22012
- Case number
- LAX00LA336
- 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: 26098e4ff70f2e11d90af27d367c54c9d7c5ec5b3003cfd53255d138e349b7e9; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:26:46.574Z.