LAX04LA171 · Maule M-7-260C
Maule M-7-260C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Paso Robles, CA to Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA171
- 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
Maule M-7-260C
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-7
- 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
- N99KJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Paso Robles, CATo Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA), Santa Barbara, 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
- Initial climb
- 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)
- 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
- Exhaust system, clamp › Failure
- Exhaust system, stack › Disconnected
- Fuel system › Vapor lock
- Fuel system, line › Overtemperature
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 lost engine power during takeoff from a private airstrip and collided with the ground during the ensuing forced landing attempt. During the initial takeoff climb, approximately 1,000 feet above ground level, the engine sputtered. The pilot changed the fuel tank selector from the "BOTH" position to the "RIGHT" position and adjusted the mixture control. Partial power returned momentarily; shortly thereafter, the engine lost power again. During the forced landing on uneven terrain, the right wing impacted the ground. Post-accident examination revealed that the left muffler's exhaust stack was detached from the manifold. The exhaust stack is secured to the exhaust manifold outlet tube with a pin. This pin was eroded and no longer secured the two pieces together. Evidence of heat was found on the fuel lines and plastic tubing in the area of the exhaust stack. According to the AC 65-12A, vapor lock can be induced by high fuel temperatures and result in a partial or complete loss of power. A post-accident test run of the engine did not reveal any operating anomalies or malfunctions.
Probable cause
fuel system vapor lock due to the failure of the left exhaust stack clamp pin, which caused a separation of the exhaust stack from the muffler and the porting of hot exhaust gases onto the fuel lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA171
- Event ID
- 20040331X00404
- Case number
- LAX04LA171
- 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: a1f8f195309246ce4242facbb8041e6fcbc2c35213c6545781d7d4b0302c6516; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:47:59.743Z.