SEA07LA170 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Long Beach International Airport (LGB) to L12 · Redlands, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA07LA170
- 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-28-161
- 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
- N130RJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, CATo L12 · Redlands, 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 final
- 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, carburetor float › Movement restricted
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On approach to landing the flight instructor, who occupied the right pilot seat, observed a loss of engine power. After landing and during the rollout the engine quit, followed by the left seat student pilot observing flames coming from his side of the engine cowling. The instructor pilot subsequently noticed smoke and flames coming from his side of the cowling, prompting the instructor and his student to evacuate the airplane. An examination of the airplane revealed thermal damage to the firewall and all four engine mounts. Two days after the accident an FAA inspector observed the operation of the electric fuel pump to be "normal." The inspector also reported that while observing the operation of the electric fuel pump he observed the carburetor leaking a steady stream of fluid. A subsequent examination of the airplane's carburetor revealed that prior to flow testing, the unit did flood before being tapped, after which it held fuel pressure. An examination/teardown of the carburetor revealed that the carburetor float was restricted due to a misadjusted retractor clip, which allowed fuel to pass the needle valve before being expelled from the carburetor and ignited by an undetermined source. It was also revealed by an FAA inspector that 2 days prior to the accident flight an incorrect electric fuel pump had been installed on the airplane during a 100-hour inspection, with a designation "FOR EXPERIMENTAL USE ONLY."
Probable cause
The restriction of the carburetor float as a result of a misadjusted retractor clip. A contributing factor was the fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA07LA170
- Event ID
- 20070723X00985
- Case number
- SEA07LA170
- 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: 7b4ee312f49f32c5b9da89912b24d0e4e8ed5a45cc1a3364035baada345615ed; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:45:51.949Z.