LAX86LA104 · Pitts S-1
Pitts S-1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From L04 · Holtville, CA to Gillespie Field (SEE)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA104
- 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
Pitts S-1
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S-1
- 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
- N7JB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L04 · Holtville, CATo Gillespie Field (SEE), San Diego, 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 · 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
- Total 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight briefing service, not understood
- Terrain condition › Rough/uneven
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PITTS S-1 NOSED OVER ON LANDING ROLL IN ROUGH TERRAIN AFTER AN ENGINE FAILURE. THE PLT INDICATED DUE TO FAULTY AND POOR WX BRIEFINGS THE FLIGHT WAS DETOURED FROM THE PRIMARY AND ALTERNATE ROUTES AND THE AIRCRAFT RAN OUT OF FUEL. THE PLT HAD CONTACTED FSS ON TWO OCCASIONS REQUESTING WX FOR HIS DESTINATION. BOTH TIMES THE WX WAS GIVEN AS 3000 FT OVC AND 15 MI VISIBILITY. THE PLT'S ROUTE REQUIRED NAVIGATION THROUGH THE COASTAL RANGE MTS. THE PEAKS OF WHICH RISE BETWEEN 5000 AND 6000 FT MSL WITH PASSES AT 3000 FT MSL. THE FLD ELEV OF THE WX REPORTING STATION WAS 385 FEET. THE REPORTED WX CONDITIONS PLACED THE BASE OF THE CEILING AT APPROXIMATELY 100 TO 200 FT IN THE PASSES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA104
- Event ID
- 20001213X32876
- Case number
- LAX86LA104
- 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 1986-02-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3e47bd8d9ee334f87e1c6da0377b12082bcfa1b95cd2483b57910b7c98d1788d; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:03:44.955Z.