SEA89LA045 · Piper PA-31
Piper PA-31 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) to Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89LA045
- 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-31
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N88RG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, NVTo Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, 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 · climb to 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
- Partial 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); Wire, static
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE CLIMBOUT, IN NIGHT VISUAL METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS, THE AIRCRAFT LOST RIGHT ENGINE POWER. THE PILOT WAS INITIALLY CLEARED FOR ONE RUNWAY, BUT WAS UNABLE TO GET A SAFE GEAR INDICATION. THE PILOT MADE A 180 DEGREE TURN TO LAND ON THE OPPOSITE RUNWAY WHILE ATTEMPTING TO GET A SAFE GEAR INDICATION. ON TURN FROM BASE TO FINAL, WITH THE GEAR DOWN AND LOCKED, THE PILOT OVERSHOT FINAL APPROACH. THE PILOT THEN CHOSE AN UNLIT PARKING LOT TO MAKE AN OFF-AIRPORT LANDING. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A TREE AND A POWER LINE. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK SEVERAL PARKED UNOCCUPIED VEHICLES DURING THE LANDING. THE FAA REPORTED THAT AN ON-SITE INSPECTION REVEALED A FAILED RIGHT TURBOCHARGER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S MISJUDGEMENT OF THE FORCED LANDING PROFILE. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FAILURE OF THE RIGHT TURBOCHARGER AND THE PILOT'S IMPROPER HANDLING OF THE LANDING GEAR SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89LA045
- Event ID
- 20001213X27674
- Case number
- SEA89LA045
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-02-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2cf8416f0e4d6715782452c5965a621a1cb4486ac4e40bdc2acf68e7a3893def; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:58:38.256Z.