- Date
- February 24, 1991, 18:00 local (Feb 25, 1991, 02:00 UTC)
- Place
- Los Angeles, CA
- Injuries
- 4 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N9132XPiper PA46-310P
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Status
- Completed · report December 30, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19910224003449A
- Case key
- 27121
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The poor preflight planning performed by the pilot-in-command in accurately determining the weight and fuel consumption of the airplane which resulted in loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
A Piper pa 46-310P lost engine power and was forced to land in a residential area. Exam of the aircraft fuel system revealed about one pint of fuel in each wing tank. There was no evidence of fuel spillage or any evidence aircraft fuel leaks at the accident scene. There was no evidence of an inflight fuel leak on the aircraft fuselage. The pilot indicated that his planned fuel consumption should have averaged 17 gallons per hour (gph). The average fuel consumption for the trip was 19.9 gph. The Piper pa 46-310P, pilot operating handbook (POH) predicts a fuel consumption of 17.5 gph for the trip flight conditions. The pilot calculated the max gross weight (gwt) of the aircraft at the start of the accident flight to be 4,116.7 pounds, 1.3 pounds below the max ramp wt of 4,118 pounds. The weight of the aircraft was recalculated based on actual passenger weights and actual baggage weights. The aircraft was determined to be 260 pounds over maximum gwt before takeoff. The POH does not list any performance data for an aircraft being operated over maximum gwt.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9132X
- Reported as
- Piper PA46-310P
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 4608086
- Airframe hours
- 787
- Engine
- Continental TSI0-520BEI, 310 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Malibu Air
- Registered owner
- Malibu Air
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · December 28, 1990 · 33 hours before
- Departed
- SKE · Taos, NM
- Destination
- SMO · Santa Monica, CA
- Flight plan
- VFR/IFR
- Airport
- SMO · Santa Monica, runway 21, 4,987 × 150 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 39
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 3,779 total · 103 in this make and model · 3,612 as pilot in command · 104 in the last 90 days · 29 in the last 30 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Wind
- 260° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 6 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 57 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- SMO, 4 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.