Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Long Beach Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Long Beach, California 90807
Wednesday, June 15, 1994 14:57 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
A FORMER FRENCH AIRFORCE FOUGA CM 170 JET TRAINER LOST POWER IN BOTH ENGINES AND COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN AFTER TAKEOFF ABOUT 2,000 FEET FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT REPORTED A LANDING GEAR PROBLEM AND REQUESTED CLEARANCE TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT. WITNESSES REPORTED HEARING THE AIRPLANES'S JET ENGINES 'SPOOL DOWN' DURING THE TAKEOFF CLIMB ABOUT 600 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND (AGL). THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED TO ABOUT 300 FEET AGL WHEN THE LEFT WING DIPPED, FOLLOWED BY THE RIGHT WING DROPPING RAPIDLY. ANOTHER PILOT WHO WITNESSED THE ACCIDENT STATED THE AIRPLANE APPEARED TO STALL. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED UNCONTROLLED, COLLIDING WITH TERRAIN OFF THE AIRPORT BOUNDARY. THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN RECENTLY IMPORTED TO THE UNITED STATES DISASSEMBLED AND DEFUELED. THE DESIGN OF THE AIRCRAFT FUEL SYSTEM DOES NOT ACCOMMODATE PREFLIGHT FUEL SAMPLING FROM THE RUBBER BLADDER FUEL CELLS IN THE FUSELAGE. WATER AND SMALL PARTICLES WERE OBSERVED IN A FUEL SAMPLE DRAINED FROM THE FUEL LINES AFTER THE ACCIDENT. THE PILOT'S LANDING GEAR WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATES ANY TIME ENGINE RPM DROPS BELOW 18,000 RPM AND ANY ONE OF THE THREE LANDING GEAR IS RETRACTED.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
A loss of power to both engines due to fuel contamination and, the pilot-in-command's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed during the subsequent emergency, which resulted in an inadvertent stall. Factors in the accident were: 1) the manufacturer's inadequate design of the airplane's fuel system, which does not facilitate fuel sampling during preflight inspections or routine normal maintenance; 2) the lack of a fuel drain valve in the fuel system for fuel sampling purposes.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 6/15/1994 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1457 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | LONG BEACH |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 90807 |
| Event Date Year | 1994 |
| Event Date Month | 6 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | |
| Event Location Longitude | |
| Event Location Airport | LONG BEACH |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | LBG |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 1 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 300 |
| Airport Elevation | 57 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1447 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 120 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | LGB |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 57 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 1 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 3200 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 2000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 15 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 21 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 14 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 180 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 6 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | 2 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 1987 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jun 15 1994 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1530 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 6 2000 11:29AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N344FM |
| NTSB Number | LAX94FA256 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | Ground |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | FOUGA |
| Aircraft Model | CM 170 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | CM 170 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 344 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 7300 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | AAIP |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jun 15 1994 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 0 |
| Airframe Hours | 2591 |
| ELT Installed | No |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | PARADISE AERO, INC. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 3271 AIRFLITE WAY |
| Aircraft Owner City | LONG BEACH |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 90807 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | P.O. BOX 14591 |
| Operator City | LONG BEACH |
| Operator State | CA |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | 90803 |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Ferry |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | LBG |
| Departure City | |
| Departure State | |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 1456 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | PTV |
| Destination City | PORTERVILLE |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Emergency landing |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 2 2001 10:30AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 30 |
| Runway Length | 10000 |
| Runway Width | 200 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |