LAX82FUG07 · Cessna 182
Cessna 182 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From POLAMAR, CA to Phoenix, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82FUG07
- 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 182
- 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
- N21409
- Operator
- James Wheeler
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From POLAMAR, CATo Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Miscellaneous › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Blythe, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ENGINE LOST POWER AT NIGHT WHILE THE AIRCRAFT WAS EN ROUTE AT ABOUT 18,000 FT MSL. THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO RESTART THE ENGINE. WHILE TRYING TO START THE ENGINE, HE NOTED THAT THE CARBURETOR HEAT WOULD NOT GO FULL ON OR FULL OFF. THE PILOT ASKED FOR VECTORS TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT, BUT WAS UNABLE TO SEE IT FROM ABOUT 7.5 MILES. HE WAS UNAWARE THAT HE HAD TO KEY THE MICROPHONE BUTTON FIVE TIMES ON 122.8 MHZ TO TURN ON THE RUNWAY LIGHTS. HE WAS ABLE TO SEE A HIGHWAY AND CAR LIGHTS FROM ABOUT 17,000 FT MSL. WHILE LANDING ON THE HIGHWAY IN HEAVY RAIN, THE LEFT WING AND ENGINE STRUCK TREES BESIDE THE ROADWAY. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82FUG07
- Event ID
- 20020917X02290
- Case number
- LAX82FUG07
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-03-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c3a82cecf03600ed20f1b1a6b12eb0196c9b9ed458cc8f1e01ad8c93b8854e0f; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:09:53.237Z.