LAX83LA217 · Maule M4-210
Maule M4-210 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From an unrecorded airport to L6F · Rialto, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83LA217
- 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
Maule M4-210
- Aircraft type
- Maule M4
- 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
- N4624T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo L6F · Rialto, 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)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Improper
- Landing gear, main gear attachment › Overload
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT MADE A HARD LANDING OFF THE RUNWAY ON AN AIRPORT DURING A FORCED LANDING. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT THE ACFT HAD JUST COME OUT OF ANNUAL INSPECTION AND IT WAS NOTED THAT THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE HANDLE WAS BROKEN. A NEW VALVE WAS ORDERED AND A TEMPORARY HANDLE WAS PUT ON THE VALVE. DURING A RUN IN FLT ON MAY 3 THE ENGINE QUIT BUT THE PILOT WAS ABLETO LAND ON AN AIRPORT. THE PILOT CALLED HIS MECHANIC TO BRING FUEL AND THEY ADDED 5 GALLONS TO THE RIGHT TANK. THE PILOTWAS CONVINCED BY THE MECHANIC TO WAIT BEFORE FERRY OF THE ACFT WAS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED. THE PILOT CAME BACK THE NEXT DAY WITH 10 GALS OF FUEL AND STILL NOT KNOWING WHICH TANK THE SELECTOR WAS ON PUT 5 GALS IN EACH TANK. THIS MADE 10 GALS IN RT TANK AND 5 GALS IN THE LEFT. THE PILOT TOOK OFF AFTER CHECKING THE ENGINE AND 3 MINUTES LATER THE ENGINE QUIT. HE WASABLE TO LAND ADJACENT TO THE RUNWAY WHERE THE GEAR COLLAPSED. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE SELECTOR WAS ON LEFT TANK. ONE AND ONE HALF GALS IN EACH TANK WAS UNUSABLE. THERE WAS ONLY A TRACE IN THE LEFT TANK AND APPROX 7 GALS IN THE RIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83LA217
- Event ID
- 20001214X43034
- Case number
- LAX83LA217
- 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: 4b6c0163c71317ed5610e149f2487b0b4c06545da63f95858359c89f20fda43e; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:42:07.488Z.