LAX03FA067 · Cessna 414
Cessna 414 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Zamperini Field (TOA) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX03FA067
- 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
Cessna 414
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 414
- 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
- N127WW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, CATo Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), Palm Springs, 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 · VFR pattern 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- 1 engine › Loss, total
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certificated flight instructor (CFI) was providing multiengine training to one of the two owner/pilots aboard during an IFR cross-country flight. Upon reaching cruise altitude, both left and right engine fuel selectors were turned from the main fuel tanks to the auxiliary tanks. Shortly after selecting the auxiliary tanks, the left engine lost power. Power was restored after the fuel selector was returned to the main tank, and the CFI elected to continue the flight. During approach to land at the destination airport, the CFI simulated a left engine failure by reducing power on that engine to "zero thrust." The left propeller was intentionally not feathered. While on the base leg, about to turn final, the left engine began to surge, pulling the airplane away from the airport. The CFI stated that he took the controls, and increased power on both engines, but the airplane continued to move away from the runway. He stated that the left engine continued to surge, and the right engine began to lose power. He indicated that he turned the boost pumps for both engines from the low to "ON" (high) position without any noticeable difference in power. He did not feather either propeller, and made a forced landing off airport in a sandy ravine. All pilots indicated that there was ample fuel aboard the airplane at the time of the engine problems, and that the fuel tank selectors were on the main tanks. Postaccident inspection disclosed that the left main and auxiliary fuel tanks had been breached during the accident. The right main and auxiliary tanks were intact, with a usable quantity of fuel remaining in the right main. The left engine had damage that precluded a test run. It was disassembled, and no evidence of any preimpact mechanical anomaly was discovered. The left engine driven fuel pump was not tested. The left engine's fuel boost pump ran noisily for a short period, and then overheated. The right engine was successfully run on a test stand. An inspection of the right engine's spark plugs prior to the engine run revealed that the engine had operated in an overly rich state just prior to the accident. The right engine's fuel boost pump functioned normally. The airplane's flight manual cautions that if the boost pump switch is moved to the high position while the engine driven fuel pump is operating, an overly rich condition may result in a total loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's improper selection of the high boost position for the operating right engine while on base leg to land, which resulted in a loss of engine power of the right engine. Factors associated with the accident are the left engine's loss of power for an undetermined reason, the flight instructor's failure to feather the propellers of the affected engines, and his failure to maintain directional control, which resulted in an off-airport forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX03FA067
- Event ID
- 20030124X00108
- Case number
- LAX03FA067
- 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: d91dc6c340daabc2eda94eef9c4ac52a9fbdb68a8c602943410ec4f6eafb28fa; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:31:47.629Z.