LAX08LA263 · Smith Stewart S51D
Smith Stewart S51D · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) on approach
From Tehachapi Municipal Airport (TSP) to Oxnard Airport (OXR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08LA263
- 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
Smith Stewart S51D
- Aircraft type
- Smith STEWART S51D
- 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
- N51VS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tehachapi Municipal Airport (TSP), Tehachapi, CATo Oxnard Airport (OXR), Oxnard, 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the flight was made at a cruise altitude of 9,500 feet mean sea level (msl). As he neared his destination, he descended to 2,500 feet msl at low power with the mixture enrichened progressively. He entered the traffic pattern for runway 25 on the right base leg as instructed by the tower local controller. After turning final, the pilot increased power and the engine began to run rough. According to the pilot, "the engine was producing little or no power and descent rate was in excess of 2,500 feet per minute." He switched from the right to the left ignition module, which resulted in a momentary increase in power. After a few seconds, the engine again stopped producing power, and he executed an approach to a baseball field. The airplane impacted the chain link fence backstop of the baseball field and then struck a school bus barn. The wing separated from the fuselage. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector examined the wreckage of the airplane and reported that the airplane was powered by a Chevrolet V-8 engine. The reason for the loss of engine power was not determined.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for an undetermined reason.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08LA263
- Event ID
- 20080821X01278
- Case number
- LAX08LA263
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 666bb6a5bc72137e08412fc9c18fd74f2cbd8d9f0335d2877c72f5baebe38978; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:04:41.335Z.