LAX87FA337 · Piper AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6
Cal Aero Aircraft Sales Piper AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Chino Airport (CNO) to McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA337
- 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 AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Piper AEROSTAR 601
- 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
- N902RG
- Operator
- Cal Aero Aircraft Sales
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chino Airport (CNO)To McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ), Carlsbad, 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fbo personnel › Refueling, improper
- Fluid, fuel grade › Incorrect
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Corona, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS REFUELED BEFORE IT DEPT ON THE ACCD FLIGHT; THE PILOT DID NOT SUPERVISE THE FUELING. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PLT ADVISED THE ONTARIO DEPT CONTROLLER THAT BOTH ENGINES WERE EXPERIENCING A POWER LOSS AND THAT HE SUSPECTED JET FUEL CONTAMINATION. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A BERM DURING THE ENSUING FORCED LANDING. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE FBO FUELED THE AIRPLANE WITH 131.3 GALS OF JET A FUEL. INVESTIGATORS DID NOT LOCATE ANY WITNESSES WHO SAW THE PLT PREFLT THE AIRPLANE. THE PILOT SUSTAINED SEVERE HEAD INJURIES & COULD NOT RECALL IF HE HAD PREFLIGHTED THE AIRPLANE - THE RT FRONT SEAT PAX WAS NOT PRESENT WHEN THE PLT BOARDED THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA337
- Event ID
- 20001213X32108
- Case number
- LAX87FA337
- 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: cfaf41d74cb9817ce41340560d7cbbbcf0d6442f827e2ce923c635bfb8919751; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:19:53.453Z.