LAX82DA331 · Piper 601P
Piper 601P · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR) to San Carlos Airport (SQL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82DA331
- 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
Piper 601P
- Aircraft type
- Piper 601
- 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
- N3642Y
- Operator
- H. Joe Meheen
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, CATo San Carlos Airport (SQL), San Carlos, 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
- Total 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
- 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, pump › Erratic
- Fuel system, pump › Leak
- Fuel system, pump › Loose
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING LIFT-OFF THE RIGHT ENGINE FAILED. THE TAKEOFF WAS ABORTED & THE PLT SWERVED THE ACFT TO AVOID A BLAST FENCE AT THE END OF THE RWY. THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR FAILED & THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE FENCE. MAINTENANCE RECORDS REVEALED A TOTAL OF 12 DISCREPANCIES PERTAINING TO FUEL FLOW ON THE RIGHT ENG BEGINNING 7/14/81. AN ENGINE RUN WAS MADE AFTER THEACCIDENT. WHEN TAKEOFF POWER WAS APPLIED & THE BOOST PUMP WAS TURNED ON, THE ENG QUIT. THE RIGHT ENG-DRIVEN FUEL PUMP, LEAR RG 17980J, WAS THEN BENCH TESTED. THE FUEL PUMP COVER DID NOT APPEAR TO BE PROPERLY SAFETY-WIRED. FUEL LEAKED FROM THE VENT HOLE IN THE CAP DURING PRESSURE TESTING. WHEN THE COVER WAS REMOVED, THE DIAPHRAGM RETAINING NUT FELL OUT ONTO THE TEST BENCH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82DA331
- Event ID
- 20020917X04733
- Case number
- LAX82DA331
- 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: 2390695d61a8a7f8532a3f3fd6cddaae19e405506704704a1f0f12ffc9a97096; retrieved 2026-09-24T01:05:38.275Z.