LAX83FU016 · Eipper MX
Eipper MX · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FU016
- 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
- 1 · 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
Eipper MX
- Aircraft type
- Eipper MX
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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 103: Ultralight
- 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 · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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 exhaustion; Stall
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THIS ULTRALIGHT PLT, ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, EXPRESSED SOME ANXIETY ABOUT FLYING ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT. THE INSTRUCTOR REVIEWED THE PROCEDURES WITH HER ON THE GROUND, BUT DID NOT FLY WITH HER. THE ACFT, PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, HAD LESS THAN 2 GALLONS OF FUEL. IT BURNS 2 GALS/HR. THIS FLT WAS SCHEDULED FOR 30 MINUTES. THE ACFT FLEW FOR ABOUT 15 MINS.AFTER TAKEOFF PRIOR TO RETURNING TO LAND. THE ACFT MADE SEVERAL APPROACHES ONLY TO GO-AROUND. THE INSTRUCTOR AND HIS PARTNER TOOKOFF IN A 2 PLACE VEHICLE TO TRY TO LEAD THE STUDENT IN, BUT BROKE OFF THEIR APPROACH BEFORE SHE LANDES. SHE GOT ABOUT 2 FT AGL, BUT WENT AROUND AGAIN WITHOUT EVER REDUCING THE POWER BELOW 75 PERCENT. ON THE NEXT BASE LEG THE ACFT PITCHED UP AND STALLED AFTER WHICH IT PITCHED NOSE DOWN AND CRASHED. AFTER CRASH EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE PROPELLER WAS NOT ROTATING AT GROUND CONTACT AND THE ACFT AND ENGINE CONTAINED NO FUEL. THE ENGINE OPERATED AFTER REFUELING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FU016
- Event ID
- 20001214X44576
- Case number
- LAX83FU016
- 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: cadb1c0753b07277bad800d8b9f86bef0da7e78ad9f2ad6d6b2e0835da516ce2; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:12:54.120Z.