LAX86LA281 · Cessna 175
Cessna 175 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Visalia Municipal Airport (VIS) to 015 · Turlock, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA281
- 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 175
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- 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
- N7108M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Visalia Municipal Airport (VIS), Visalia, CATo 015 · Turlock, 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 · descent
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Engine assembly › Failure, total
- Fluid, oil › Exhaustion
- Fluid, oil › Leak
- Lubricating system, oil line › Incorrect
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, modification, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 175 COLLIDED WITH A TREE AFTER A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER DURING A VFR X-COUNTRY FLT. THE PLT INDICATED HE EXPERIENCED AN ENG FAILURE AT 2,000 FT MSL, WHILE ON DESCENT, APRX 15 MI FROM HIS DEST. HE REPORTED THAT THE ENG BEGAN TO VIBRATE SLIGHTLY. THE VIBRATIONS RAPIDLY BECAME WORSE, THEN THE ENG STOPPED SUDDENLY, AND SMOKE ENTERED THE COCKPIT. THE PLT WAS FORCED TO LAND AND SELECTED AN OPEN FIELD BOUNDED BY AN ALMOND ORCHARD. WHILE ON FINAL APCH, THE LEFT WING DIPPED AND STRUCK AN ALMOND TREE CAUSING THE ACFT TO LAND SHORT. THE ACFT CAME TO REST ON THE EDGE OF AN OPEN FIELD WHERE IT NOSED OVER IN A DITCH. THE ENG OIL SYST HAD BEEN MODIFIED WITH PLUMBING THAT ADDED A LINE WHICH EXTENDED THE DRAIN FROM THE DRAIN PLUG TO BELOW THE ENG COWLING. THE LINE WAS PLUGGED AT THE COWLING END AND THERE WAS NO PETCOCK TO RESTRICT THE OIL FROM DRAINING WHEN THE PLUG WAS REMOVED. THERE WAS A LEAK AT ONE OF THE FITTING WELDS WHICH ALLOWED THE ENG OIL TO FLOW OUT. NO OIL WAS FOUND IN THE ENG OIL SYST WHEN IT WAS EXAMINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA281
- Event ID
- 20001213X34216
- Case number
- LAX86LA281
- 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: 64ea478f4fb0c2c6fce10039702e02ba2f8bc63ea249431b69389d979fd82762; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:19:52.460Z.