LAX90LA142 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 023 to 023
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA142
- 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 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N76918
- Operator
- Thomas P Vayda · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From 023To 023
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT FOR THE LOCAL FLIGHT AND DISCOVERED THAT NO FUEL WAS AVAILABLE TO REFUEL THE AIRCRAFT. DURING THE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION THE PILOT SAID HE VISUALLY EXAMINED THE TANKS AND FOUND THAT HE HAD ABOUT 6 TOTAL GALLONS AVAILABLE. THE PILOT DECIDED TO FLY TO A NEIGHBORING AIRPORT TO OBTAIN FUEL. AFTER A NORMAL RUNUP HE INITIATED A TAKEOFF AND THE ENGINE SPUTTERED ONCE AT ABOUT 100 FEET AGL, THEN QUIT ALTOGETHER. ACCORDING TO CESSNA AIRCRAFT, THE AIRCRAFT FUEL TANKS HAVE PICKUP PORTS AT THE LOWER FORWARD INBOARD CORNER. THE COMPANY SAID THERE IS A PROHIBITION AGAINST TAKEOFF'S WITH FUEL QUANTITIES OF LESS THAN ONE-QUARTER IN THE TANK SELECTED FOR THE MANEUVER. AN ENGINEERING REPRESENTATIVE FROM CESSNA STATED THAT THEIR SERVICE HISTORY ON THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED A 'HIGH NUMBER OF UNPORTING INCIDENTS WITH FUEL QUANTITIES OF LESS THEN ONE- QUARTER.'
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION DUE TO UNPORTING OF THE FUEL PICK UP IN THE FUEL TANK SELECTED FOR THE TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA142
- Event ID
- 20001212X22948
- Case number
- LAX90LA142
- 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: d89016e542052844c5379af8413ca5992fbebf2596ecd7e59699cb45894c8125; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:55:27.643Z.