LAX84LA050 · Cessna 150H
California Aviation Services Cessna 150H · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From 070 · Sutter Creek, CA to San Jose, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84LA050
- 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 150H
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N23268
- Operator
- California Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 070 · Sutter Creek, CATo San Jose, 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS FLOWN FROM SAN JOSE, CA TO AN ARPT NEAR SUTTER CREEK, CA WHERE THE PLT LANDED. BEFORE TAKING OFF ON THE RETURN FLT, HE VISUALLY CHECKED THE FUEL, AND ACCORDING TO HIM, THE FUEL WAS WITHIN 1/2 INCH FROM THE TOP OF THE TANKS. NO FUEL WAS ADDED BEFORE DEPARTING. DURING ARRIVAL AT SAN JOSE, THE ENG LOST POWER, ABOUT 2 1/4 MI FROM THE DESTINATION ARPT, AND WOULD NOT RESTART. AT THAT TIME, THE PLT NOTICED THAT THE LEFT FUEL GAGE INDICATED NEARLY 1/4 FULL & THE RIGHT GAGE INDICATED 1/8 FULL. DURING A FORCED LANDING, THE ACFT HIT A BERM & WAS DAMAGED. AN EXAM OF THE FUEL TANKS REVEALED THERE WAS LESS THAN 3 GAL OF FUEL REMAINING. THE FUEL CAPACITY OF THE PLANE WAS 26 GAL, OF WHICH, 22.5 GAL WAS CONSIDERED AS USABLE. THE ACFT HAD FLOWN 4 HRS SINCE IT WAS REFUELED. ACCORDING TO THE OWNER'S MANUAL, THE PLANE'S ENDURANCE AT 4000 FT WITH 75% POWER WAS 4 HRS. ALSO, THE MANUAL STATED THAT THIS VALUE COULD VARY 10% OR MORE DUE TO VARIABLES SUCH AS CARB METERING CHARACTERISTICS, ENG & PROP CONDITION, & ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84LA050
- Event ID
- 20001214X45110
- Case number
- LAX84LA050
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 3689d6628eb002f43e38fa643058a12b3312d2058e243b93c296d472e9c72238; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:26:45.265Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the aircraft was flown "FROM SAN JOSE, CA TO AN ARPT NEAR SUTTER CREEK, CA" and lost power on the return flight "DURING ARRIVAL AT SAN JOSE ... ABOUT 2 1/4 MI FROM THE DESTINATION ARPT"; the destination was not recorded.