LAX84FA299 · Cessna TR182
Cessna TR182 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Big Bear City Airport (L35) to Zamperini Field (TOA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84FA299
- 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 TR182
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N756BS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Big Bear City Airport (L35), Big Bear City, CATo Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Ignition system, spark plug › Leaded
- Ignition system, spark plug › Other
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
JUST AFTER TAKEOFF, SHORTLY AFTER LANDING GEAR RETRACTION, THE ENG BACKFIRED AND EXPERIENCED A TOTAL POWER LOSS. THE PLT LOWERED THE LANDING GEAR AND LANDED STRAIGHT AHEAD JUST OFF THE RWY. THE ACFT BOUNCED ONCE AND CAME TO REST IN A CITY PARK. IT IMMEDIATELY CAUGHT FIRE. THE TWO OCCUPANTS ESCAPED FROM THE ACFT, BUT WERE SERIOUSLY BURNED. INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE FOLLOWING THE ACCIDENT SHOWED EVIDENCE OF OVERHEATING. THERE WERE INDICATIONS ON ALL SPARK PLUGS OF HEAVY DEPOSITS OF LEAD AND OIL. THE SPARK PLUGS WERE NOT GAPPED CONSISTANTLY. THE ELECTRODES WERE GRAY IN COLOR. TESTS CONDUCTED ON THE PLUGS REVEALED THAT THE MAJORITY FAILED TO FIRE AT HIGH MANIFOLD PRESSURES. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS APPROXIMATELY 10000 FT MSL. THE PLT STATED THAT ON RUN-UP THE ENGINE RAN ROUGH, BUT LEANING THE MIXTURE HELPED. HE STATED THAT HE ADJUSTED THE MIXTURE TO FULL RICH FOR TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84FA299
- Event ID
- 20001214X39618
- Case number
- LAX84FA299
- 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: 6f2fa932c43c033aa1d0609af4cdb5dc0fde3be6828a2ccf29a3dc4a5d61ab58; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:36:38.724Z.