NTSB LAX90LA071 — 1990-01-20 · APPLE VALLEY, California, United States

Current FAA registration · N727G

Make / Model: NORTH AMERICAN NAVION
Year of manufacture: 1946 · 44 years old at event
Engine: CONT MOTOR E185 SERIES (205 hp)
Seats / Engines: 4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date: 20110323
ADS-B equipped: Yes — Mode-S A9BE23

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N727G North American Navion None

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT FAILED TO PROPERLY PREFLIGHT THE AIRPLANE AND DEPARTED ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT WITH MINIMAL FUEL.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT PREFLIGHTED THE AIRPLANE BEFORE DEPARTING ON THE LOCAL VFR FLIGHT. WHILE ON THE DOWNWIND LEG, THE ENGINE SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO LAND ON THE AIRPORT AND ELECTED TO LAND IN AN OPEN ROUGH/UNEVEN DIRT AREA ABT 1/2 MILE NORTH OF THE AIRPORT. A POST-ACCIDENT WRECKAGE EXAMINATION DSCLSD THE ENGINE SUSTAINED FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE RIGHT FUEL TANK CONTAINED A MINIMAL AMOUNT OF FUEL; THE FUSELAGE TANK WAS EMPTY. THE LEFT TANK FED FROM THE RIGHT FUEL TANK. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_LAX90LA071.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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