NTSB CAROL · Event
Event LAX90LA075
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Factual narrative
THE PLT WAS RECEIVING RADAR ADVISORIES FROM LAX TRACON. HE REPORTED THE ENGINE LOST TOTAL POWER. UNABLE TO RESTART THE ENGINE, THE PLT DITCHED THE AIRPLANE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. ALL OF THE OCCUPANTS WERE RESCUED BY A FISHING BOAT BEFORE THE AIRPLANE SANK. NEITHER THE AIRPLANE NOR THE ENGINE WAS RECOVERED. THE PLT REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE POWER LOSS APPEARED TO BE FUEL RELATED. THE AIRPLANE HAD 31 GALLONS OF FUEL WHEN IT DEPARTED AND WAS ABOUT 12 MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT WHEN THE POWER LOSS OCCURRED. THE MAINTENANCE LOGBOOKS REVEALED THAT THE ENGINE HAD BEEN DISASSEMBLED AND INSPECTED DUE TO A PROP STRIKE. IT HAD BEEN REINSTALLED ON THE AIRPLANE ABOUT 1 MONTH BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. AN OVERHAULED ENGINE DRIVEN FUEL PUMP WAS ALSO INSTALLED AT THE TIME THE ENGINE WAS REINSTALLED ON THE AIRPLANE. THE AIRPLANE ACCRUED ABOUT 31 FLIGHT HOURS SINCE THE ENGINE WAS REINSTALLED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1990_LAX90LA075.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
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