LAX86LA286 · Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30 · Accident during initial climb
From San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP) to Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA286
- 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 PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N39944
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP), San Luis Obispo, CATo Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Fluid, oil › Low level
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS INFORMED THAT HE WAS TRAILING SMOKE ON CLIMB OUT. THE PLT ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE CLIMB DUE TO IMC AT THE DEPARTURE ARPT AND DIVERT TO ANOTHER ARPT LOCATED 26 NM NORTH. HE CONTINUED TO CLIMB TO 4,500 FT MSL TO VMC. THE OIL WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED DURING THE CLIMB AND THE PLT REQUESTED RADAR VECTORS TO ANOTHER ARPT AND VMC. APRX 20 NM SOUTH OF THE OF THE APRT WHILE IN A DESCENT IN VMC THE ENG OIL PRESSURE GAGE INDICATED 'O'. THE ENG THEN SEIZED AND THE PLT LANDED IN A FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE LEFT LANDING GEAR WAS SEVERED AND THE LEFT WING WAS DAMAGED. AFTER THE ACFT CAME TO REST, OIL WAS SEEN ON THE TOP OF THE ENG COWLING AND ON THE ACFT FUSELAGE. EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED THE ENG CASE HAD FRACTURED ABOVE THE NUMBER 6 CYLINDER. ALL OIL FITTINGS WERE EXAMINED FOR PROPER SECURITY AND TIGHTNESS AND PRESSURE CHECKED. THERE WERE NO INDICATIONS OF LEAKAGE OR BLOCKAGE FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA286
- Event ID
- 20001213X34220
- Case number
- LAX86LA286
- 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: 182711f05dacd1a07e35adb2f679bffedc470e575dd0e5dbac54fcd3106c26cb; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:19:53.107Z.