LAX02LA006 · Stinson 108-3
Stinson 108-3 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Rosamond, CA to Lone Pine/Death Valley Airport (O26)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX02LA006
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Stinson 108-3
- Aircraft type
- Stinson 108
- 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
- N735C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rosamond, CATo Lone Pine/Death Valley Airport (O26), Lone Pine, 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Partial 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
- Stall/mush
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, bearing › Disintegrated
- Engine assembly, camshaft › Disintegrated
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane collided with terrain and nosed over during an attempted takeoff. The pilot reported that the airplane did not develop sufficient airspeed during the takeoff roll. At the decision point, the pilot noticed a berm that was 2-feet high at the end of the runway. He felt that he did not have enough room to stop so he proceeded at full power and "jerked" the airplane into the air. The airplane started to sink, and he applied full aft elevator. The airplane stalled about 2 feet above the ground, touched down again, and the right main gear struck a bush and sheared off. The airplane came to rest inverted and was consumed by post impact fire. A witness who purchased the engine from the pilot reported that the camshaft had a disintegrated bearing.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to attain sufficient airspeed during the attempted takeoff, which resulted in a stall/mush. The airplane's failure to accelerate was due to a disintegrated bearing on the camshaft. The pilot's failure to make a timely abort decision was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX02LA006
- Event ID
- 20011024X02140
- Case number
- LAX02LA006
- 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, coordinates. 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: 1915d2ac3a18947b6fd6afd47792ab1dd1d8118f74436ad89c65230d7173a3cf; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:50:05.277Z.