LAX07CA151 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Four Corners Regional Airport (FMN) to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX07CA151
- 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
Piper PA-28-181
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2834U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Four Corners Regional Airport (FMN), Farmington, NMTo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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 · IFR initial approach
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, inadequate
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 collided with three automobiles during a forced landing on a city street following a loss of engine power after nearly 4 hours of flight. Unable to make the airport, the pilot attempted to land the airplane on a street. The right wing separated during the collision, and the fuel tank ruptured. An FAA inspector observed no fuel in the tank remnants or spillage in the vicinity. The left wing was intact, and contained about 10 gallons of fuel. A maintenance technician examined the engine under the supervision of the FAA. He plumbed a 5-gallon gas can into the airplane's fuel system. He energized the electric pump, and confirmed 5 psi on the fuel pressure gauge. He started the engine within three revolutions of the propeller, and allowed the engine to reach operating temperature. He ran the engine up to 1,800 rpm, and completed a magneto check. Both magnetos dropped about 70 rpm. He then reduced the power to idle, and the engine stabilized at 850 rpm. He checked acceleration from idle to maximum power, and the engine accelerated normally. He repeated this test three times, and the engine responded without hesitating or stalling. Upon shutdown, the idle rpm rise was normal.
Probable cause
fuel starvation due to the pilot's inadequate fuel system management.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX07CA151
- Event ID
- 20070710X00896
- Case number
- LAX07CA151
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2007-05-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1de1ce5637e9caa1f5dbd6b4fab569403b9dda8df815d5e93c4bccc88cc46782; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:31:35.301Z.