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Title: Plane Crash: Fuel Mix Cited

AVIATION: 'Too rich' combination may have caused plummet into Fullerton house.

April 18, 2000

By HEATHER LOURIE and BILL RAMS The Orange County Register

FULLERTON  Federal investigators believe the engine of a small plane that crashed into a Fullerton home last week cut off because the mix between air and fuel was incorrect, an official said Monday.

"It's not a malfunction," said National Transportation Safety Board investigator Bob Crispin. "The manufacturer believes the air-fuel mixture was too rich to sustain the engine power."

Pilot William Lofton, 50, who was killed in the crash, radioed the Fullerton Airport tower to say his door was open shortly before the 12:10 a.m. accident April 11, but that apparently wasn't a factor, Crispin said. He said the spark plugs were black and sooty, which indicates the fuel was too rich.

"We still haven't finished reviewing the airplane's records," Crispin said.

Crispin has completed a preliminary crash report and said the plane's engine, which was made by Teledyne Continental, will be sent to the company's Mobile, Ala., headquarters for further examination.

In the mid-1980s, Crispin said, the company ran several tests on the engine after a series of unexplained power-loss problems. They found planes would lose power if the fuel mixture  which is controlled by the pilot  had too high a ratio of gasoline to air, the equivalent of flooding a car engine by pumping the gas pedal repeatedly.

"Those tests mimic what we saw," Crispin said.

Witnesses said the plane seemed to lose power before slamming into the home on Courtney Way. They also reported seeing thick, black smoke, which is consistent with a throttle cutback, he said.

http://www.ocregister.com/community/crash018w1.shtml

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 18, 2000