LAX89LA263 · Piper PA-23-180
Piper PA-23-180 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From General William J Fox Airfield (WJF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA263
- 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-23-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N4376P
- Operator
- Simanski, Donald E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From General William J Fox Airfield (WJF)To not recorded
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Landing gear, emergency extension assembly › Not engaged
- Pilot in command › Starting procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER COMPLETION OF AN ANNUAL INSPECTION, THE AIRCRAFT OWNER ELECTED TO CONDUCT A MAINTENANCE TEST FLIGHT. WHILE AIRBORNE, HE SHUT DOWN THE RIGHT ENGINE, THEN FEATHERED AND UNFEATHERED THE PROPELLER, AND RESTARTED THE ENGINE BY LETTING THE PROPELLER WINDMILL. WHEN HE FOLLOWED THE SAME PROCEDURE WITH THE LEFT ENGINE AND PROPELLER, THE PROPELLER FAILED TO UNFEATHER AND HE COULD NOT RESTART THE ENGINE. THE PILOT RETURNED TO THE AIRPORT WITH ONE ENGINE OPERATING AND ATTEMPTED TO EXTEND THE LANDING GEAR DURING PATTERN ENTRY. THE LANDING GEAR DID NOT EXTEND AND THE PILOT INITIATED A GO-AROUND. THE AIRCRAFT DID NOT CLIMB AND BEGAN TO LOOSE ALTITUDE. EVENTUALLY, IT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND OFF AIRPORT DURING AN UNARRESTED DESCENT. THE LANDING GEAR EXTENSION AND RETRACTION SYSTEM WAS HYDRAULIC AND POWERED BY A PUMP ON THE LEFT ENGINE. THE FLIGHT MANUAL PROVIDED TWO ALTERNATE MEANS OF EMERGENCY GEAR EXTENSION, NEITHER OF WHICH THE PILOT ATTEMPTED ON THE FIRST LANDING APPROACH.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW ESTABLISHED PROCEDURES IN RESTARTING THE ENGINE THAT DRIVES THE HYDRUALIC PUMP AND HIS FAILURE TO FOLLOW PUBLISHED EMERGENCY LANDING GEAR EXTENSION PROCEDURES. THE PILOT'S DECISION TO SHUT DOWN AN ENGINE AND FEATHER THE PROPELLER BEFORE ASSURING HIMSELF THAT THE PROPELLER WOULD UNFEATHER AND HIS INADEQUATE TRAINING IN EMERGENCY PROCEDURES WERE FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA263
- Event ID
- 20001213X29150
- Case number
- LAX89LA263
- 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: 8be8d8b98c11008934b895cbaf74a96f4a6aea0948eb1fe116ff8d7e2ef67c8e; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:05:41.335Z.