LAX89FA032 · Piper PA-28R-200
U.S. Marine Corps Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Chino Airport (CNO) to John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA032
- 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
Piper PA-28R-200
- 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
- N9467N
- Operator
- U.S. Marine Corps
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, CATo John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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)
- 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, oil › Exhaustion
- Lubricating system, oil quickdrain/drain plug › Unapproved part
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, compliance with ad, disregarded
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
FIVE MINUTES AFTER DEPARTURE AND DURING NORMAL CRUISE FLIGHT, THE CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR NOTICED A PROP OVERSPEED. HE IMMEDIATELY PULLED BACK ON THE PROP CONTROL TO REDUCE ENGINE R.P.M. AND INSTRUCTED THE STUDENT, A PRIVATE PILOT, TO DIVERT TO THE AIRPLANE'S HOME BASE. TWO MINUTES AFTER THE OVERSPEED THE ENGINE 'SPUTTERED' FOR 5 SECONDS AND SEIZED. THE INSTRUCTOR TOOK CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AND EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING ON A HILLSIDE. THE AIRPLANE BRUSHED SMALL BRANCHES AT THE TOP OF A TREE AND COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE 'USED ALL THE AIRSPEED TO REACH A SUITABLE LANDING SPOT', AND COULD NOT FLARE THE AIRPLANE TO CUSHION THE LANDING. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED EVIDENCE OF AN OIL EXHAUSTION. THE OIL QUICK DRAIN WAS FOUND TO BE IN THE OPEN AND LOCKED POSITION. AN EXAMINATION OF RECORDS REVEALED THAT THE DRAIN WAS THE INCORRECT PART. THERE WAS AN AD CONCERNING THE INCORRECT OIL DRAIN BEING OPENED BY CONTACT WITH THE LNDG GEAR DURING RETRACTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA032
- Event ID
- 20001213X27262
- Case number
- LAX89FA032
- 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: 4cafd6353185e7a9b959d4e79778452a03059822a7eb73913206d6300aa3b91f; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:29:54.557Z.