LAX90LA030 · Cessna 210
Cessna 210 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From General William J Fox Airfield (WJF) to Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA030
- 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 210
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N46JW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From General William J Fox Airfield (WJF), Lancaster, CATo Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, 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
- 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; Utility pole (marked)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of North Hollywood, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT ESTD THERE WAS 16 GAL OF USABLE FUEL ON BOARD WHEN HE DEPD LANCASTER FOR BURBANK, CA. AS HE WAS APCHG BURBANK TO LAND, THE ENG LOST POWER. UNABLE TO REACH THE ARPT, HE TRIED TO FIND A ROADWAY OR STREET THAT WAS NOT OCCUPIED WITH VEHICLES. JUST BEFORE TOUCHDOWN, THE ACFT HIT A UTILITY POLE, THEN DROPPED TO THE SURFACE & SLID INTO A VEHICLE. LESS THAN 2 GAL OF FUEL WAS FOUND REMAINING IN THE ACFT AFTER THE ACDNT. THE PLT RPRTD NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE WITH THE ACFT, BUT SUGGESTED THAT WITH BETTER FUEL GAGES, THE ACDNT MIGHT HAVE BEEN AVOIDED.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION FROM AN INADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: FALSE FUEL GAGE INDICATIONS, LACK OF A SUITABLE AREA FOR A FORCED LANDING, AND OBSTRUCTIONS (UTILITY POLE & VEHICLE(S) IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA030
- Event ID
- 20001213X29822
- Case number
- LAX90LA030
- 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 1989-11-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9972f9e9dfefb74d8e3daa8c321ec16dbf4929d3564bb7924996e089e4aad254; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:59:27.576Z.