LAX04LA267 · Schweizer Aircraft Corp. G-164B
Av Schweizer Aircraft Corp. G-164B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Richvale Airport (07CL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA267
- 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
Schweizer Aircraft Corp. G-164B
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer G-164
- 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
- N3626T
- Operator
- Av
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Richvale Airport (07CL), Richvale, CATo not recorded
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Partial 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
- Fuel system, fuel control › Fluctuating
- Lubricant, grease › Deteriorated
- Turbine assembly, shaft bearing › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The agricultural airplane experienced a slow and subtle loss of engine power shortly after lifting off the dirt airstrip as it departed for an aerial application flight. The pilot placed the fuel lever to flight idle and ensured the power lever was full forward; however, he was unable to dump the application load prior to impacting a dirt embankment. Post-accident examination of the engine revealed it was rotating at the time of impact; however, the power output may have been lower than that required to sustain flight. The only anomaly noted with the engine and its various components that could have resulted in the loss of engine power was a spalled and deteriorated inner drive bearing of the fuel control unit (FCU), which could result in fluctuations in torque. The bearing grease had deteriorated to a point that only grease residue was present. The reason for the bearing grease deterioration and bearing deterioration is unknown. At the time of the accident, the FCU was 53 hours short of its recommended inspection period.
Probable cause
the loss of engine power during takeoff due to the engine's deteriorated fuel control unit's inner drive shaft bearing. The reason for the bearing's deteriorated condition could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA267
- Event ID
- 20040720X01012
- Case number
- LAX04LA267
- 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: 3ddb3891f1d905f528857e2195f6af0d8354726544468c1886728dd27c308e5d; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:22:41.762Z.