LAX87LA177 · Cessna T303
Cessna T303 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Meadows Field (BFL) to Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's operation. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA177
- 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 Possible conflict
- 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 T303
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 303
- 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
- N2225C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Meadows Field (BFL), Bakersfield, CATo Santa Maria Public Airport Captain G Allan Hancock Field (SMX), Santa Maria, 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Company/operator mgmt › Insufficient standards/requirements
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Other person › Refueling, not performed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA T303 COLLIDED W THE LOC ANTENNA AFT A TOTAL LOSS OF PWR IN BOTH ENGS WHILE ON FINAL APP TO RWY 30. THE PLT INDICATED THAT THE ENGS FAILED DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE FLT MADE 5 STOPS TO PICK-UP AND DROP OFF CARGO AND IS NORMALLY FLOWN DAILY BY DIFFERENT PLTS. THE ACFT IS NOT REFUELED AT THE DEPT POINT WHERE IT IS BASED BUT RATHER AT AN INTERMEDIATE STOP. AS A RESULT OF THIS PROCEDURE, THE ACFT IS NOT FULLY FUELED PRIOR TO THE DAYS FLT AND THE FUEL LEVEL CAN ONLY BE ESTIMATED BY VISUAL INSPECTION DURING PREFLT. THE PLT HAD QUESTIONED THE CHIEF PLT ABT THE PROCEDURE AND THE FUEL LEVEL 2 WEEKS PRIOR AND WAS TOLD IT WAS 'OK'. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE ACFT HAD NOT BEEN REFUELED THE PRECEEDING DAY AT THE INTERMEDIATE STOP. THE PLT STATED THAT AFT LOWERING THE GEAR ON FINAL APP, THE ACFT LOST 150 TO 200 FEET AND COLLIDED W THE ANTENNA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA177
- Event ID
- 20001213X30715
- Case number
- LAX87LA177
- 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: 04a76874ef41ebc8e00a0c204100b33f84d69ebc32e2f26e72b6c9c5a6c37f5d; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:19:19.278Z.