LAX04LA229 · Simmons BD-5
Simmons BD-5 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA229
- 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
Simmons BD-5
- Aircraft type
- Simmons BD-5
- 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
- N501BD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR), Goodyear, 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 · descent
- 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Failure, total
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › 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 single-engine experimental airplane collided with sagebrush growing on an abandoned airport during a forced landing following a loss of engine power. The amateur-built airplane utilized a Honda EB-3 engine that was mounted at the rear of the airplane. Post-accident examination of the engine revealed the number 4 connecting rod had failed, and was discolored black, indicative of an overheating. The crankshaft throw for the number 4 connecting rod was also discolored black. No obstructions or anomalies with the lubrication system could be found.
Probable cause
The overheating and failure of the number 4 connecting rod, which resulted in a total loss of engine power during descent.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA229
- Event ID
- 20040608X00762
- Case number
- LAX04LA229
- 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: 7b6e1532e4a8acda24776dbd012bfa8360b4ed1b00efd0bd0c5e0a0fdaaedcae; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:26:33.730Z.