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Atlas / NTSB / LAX89LA333

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX89LA333

1989-09-29 PALO ALTO, California, United States Airport · PAO Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N8272R

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

SCOTTISH AVIATION SERIES 100 MDL 101

Year of manufacture

1972 · 17 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-A1B6D (200 hp)

Seats / Engines

1 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20090813

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AB4D8A

Registrant of record

COOPER PATRICK R

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. THE FUEL STARVATION WAS THE RESULT OF VANE PARTICLES FROM THE DETERIORATED ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP RESTRICTING THE UPSTREAM FLOW OF FUEL.

Factual narrative

AFTER TAKEOFF THE FLIGHT REMAINED IN A CLOSED TRAFFIC PATTERN. ON TURN TO FINAL THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND THE AIRCRAFT LANDED IN A BAY SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. NO FUEL WAS FOUND FORWARD OF THE FIREWALL. THE FUEL STRAINER AT THE FUEL CONTROL UNIT CONTAINED SMALL DARK PARTICLES. EXAMINATION OF THE ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP REVEALED THAT THE VANES HAD DAMAGE AND SEVERELY RESTRICTED THE FLOW OF FUEL. THE MECHANICAL FUEL PUMP WAS OKAY. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_LAX89LA333.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel starvation). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗