Skip to content

LAX92LA309

1992-07-19 · VAN NUYS, California, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport VNY

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

AN ON GROUND COLLISION WITH TERRAIN SUBSEQUENT TO AN ENGINE FAILURE FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT REPORTED THAT WHILE ON THE DOWNWIND LEG THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT'S ATTEMPTS TO RESTART THE ENGINE WERE UNSUCCESSFUL AND HE EXECUTED AN EMERGENCY LANDING TO THE RUNWAY. IN ORDER TO NEGOTIATE THE AIRPORT THE PILOT ANGLED TOWARDS THE RUNWAY. AFTER TOUCH DOWN THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO ALIGN THE AIRPLANE WITH THE RUNWAY AND EXITED THE RUNWAY AND COLLIDED WITH THE VISUAL APPROACH SLOPE INDICATOR LIGHTS BEFORE STOPPING. THE OPERATOR OPERATED THE ENGINE, SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT BUT COULD NOT RECALL IF THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS PROPERLY SELECTED TO A FUEL TANK. THE ACCIDENT WAS INITIALLY REPORTED AS AN INCIDENT. FURTHER EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PREEXISTING MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES AND THE CAUSE OF THE LOSS OF POWER COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1992_LAX92LA309.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (engine failure). All research papers