LAX84LA165 · Cessna 180J
Cessna 180J · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS) to Palo Alto Airport (PAO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84LA165
- 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 180J
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N52034
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS), Santa Rosa, CATo Palo Alto Airport (PAO), Palo Alto, 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
- 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
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING ARRIVAL, THE PLT HAD DESCENDED TO STAY BELOW THE TCA & WAS APPROACHING HIS DESTINATION WHEN THE ENG LOST POWER. HE TURNED BACK TOWARD THE HAYWARD ARPT, BUT WAS UNABLE TO REACH IT OR RESTART THE ENG. DURING A FORCED LANDING AT NIGHT, THE ACFT WAS DAMAGED. THE ACFT WAS EQUIPPED WITH LONG RANGE FUEL TANKS. ABOUT 5 GAL OF FUEL WAS REMAINING IN THE LEFT TANK & BETWEEN 2 & 3 GAL WAS IN THE RIGHT TANK. UNUSABLE WAS 2.5 GAL FOR EACH TANK. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTON WAS FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84LA165
- Event ID
- 20001214X38810
- Case number
- LAX84LA165
- 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 1984-02-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5223f142859a6916516367f9412e24c73f265efdf71282abc08b8d8733b10793; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:41:52.378Z.