NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR23LA131
Registry · N40635
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
MAULE M-4-220C
Year of manufacture
1972 · 51 years old at event
Engine
FRANKLIN 6A-350SER (235 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A4C5CA
Registrant of record
YUAN ANDREW W
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s inadequate fuel planning, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that, while in a climb on the left crosswind leg of the airport traffic pattern, the engine stopped producing power. He made a left turn toward the airport, activated the electric fuel pump, and changed the fuel selector valve position from the left-wing fuel tank to the right-wing fuel tank. Despite the pilot’s attempts, the engine would not restart, and the pilot made a forced landing in a vineyard. The pilot stated that he believes he unported the available fuel in the left tank while in the climbing left-hand turn. The left wing and left elevator were substantially damaged. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot
- — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid management
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Fuel planning-Pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2023_WPR23LA131.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
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 ↗