LAX89LA224 · Cessna 340
Cessna 340 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Long Beach International Airport (LGB) to Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA224
- 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 340
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N69549
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, CATo Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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; 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, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel system, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS THE AIRPLANE WAS ON FINAL APPROACH TO LAND, BOTH ENGINES LOST POWER. THE PILOT IMMEDIATELY MOVED THE BOOST PUMP SWITCHES TO THE HIGH POSITION AND SWITCHED THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVES TO THE AUXILIARY TANKS, BUT TO NO AVAIL. REALIZING THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO REACH THE RUNWAY, HE MANEUVERED THE AIRPLANE TO MISS SOME STRUCTURES, BUT IT COLLIDED WITH TREES. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO FUEL QUANTITY INDICATORS WERE INSTALLED IN THE AIRPLANE AND THAT THE MAIN FUEL TANKS WERE EMPTY; HOWEVER, BOTH AUXILIARY FUEL TANKS WERE FULL. THE OWNER'S MANUAL STATED THAT THE AUXILIARY FUEL SUPPLY WAS TO BE USED IN CRUISE FLIGHT ONLY AND THAT FAILURE OF AN ENGINE OR ENGINE DRIVEN FUEL PUMP WOULD RESULT IN FUEL NOT BEING AVAILABLE FROM THE RESPECTIVE AUXILIARY TANK.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE (MISMANAGEMENT) OF THE FUEL SYSTEM BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION. RELATED FACTORS WERE: THE LACK OF FUEL QUANTITY INDICATORS (NOT INSTALLED) IN THE AIRCRAFT, FLIGHT BY THE PILOT WITH THIS KNOWN DEFICIENCY, AND TREES IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA224
- Event ID
- 20001213X28606
- Case number
- LAX89LA224
- 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: 6835fe73bd0c103034288530d2c8a1f1deb33cfb86af438dbd5895b6553f4457; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:29:40.748Z.