LAX89LA316 · Piper PA-22
Piper PA-22 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Kingman, AZ to WILCOX, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA316
- 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-22
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N3015Z
- Operator
- Forsyth, Robert E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kingman, AZTo WILCOX, AZ
- 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
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Became lost/disoriented, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Winkelman, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THAT DURING A NIGHT FLT, HE HAD DIFFICULTY FINDING HIS DESTINATION. SUBSEQUENTLY, HIS FUEL DECREASED & HE ELECTED TO LAND ON A ROAD. DURING THE APCH TO LAND, THE AIRPLANE RAN OUT OF FUEL. AFTER TOUCHDOWN, IT HIT A BUSH & NOSED OVER.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, AFTER HE BECAME LOST/DISORIENTED, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION, BEFORE HE WAS ABLE TO COMPLETE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, THE PILOT'S LACK OF VISUAL CUES AT NIGHT, THE AIRCRAFT'S LOW FUEL LEVEL, AND THE TERRAIN CONDITION (HIGH VEGETATION/BUSHES) IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA316
- Event ID
- 20001213X29419
- Case number
- LAX89LA316
- 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 1989-09-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fa9a26625580f0477fe6baa2b8ae77cccc53fddb0f91ff70c45d83b8fc103244; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:08:42.557Z.