LAX95LA008 · REY AVID FLYER
REY AVID FLYER · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Shafter Airport - Minter Field (MIT) to Shafter Airport - Minter Field (MIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA008
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
REY AVID FLYER
- Aircraft type
- Rey AVID FLYER
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N827H
- Operator
- Roy G. Rey · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shafter Airport - Minter Field (MIT), Shafter, CATo Shafter Airport - Minter Field (MIT), CA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Cooling system › Leak
- Cooling system, lines › Loose
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, adjustment, inadequate
- Powerplant › Overtemperature
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Bakersfield, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT ABOUT 45 MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT THE INSTRUMENTS WHICH MONITOR THE ENGINES LIQUID COOLING SYSTEM BEGAN TO SHOW A RISE IN TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE. THE PILOT RECALLED THAT THE TEMPERATURE REACHED THE UPPER RED LINE LIMIT AND HE DID NOT FEEL THAT THE AIRCRAFT WOULD MAKE IT BACK TO THE AIRPORT. THE PILOT REDUCED THROTTLE AND SET UP FOR A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING IN A FIELD. THE AIRCRAFT LANDED BEYOND A BARBED WIRE FENCE AND ROLLED ABOUT 300 FEET BEFORE AN UNSEEN GULLY WAS ENCOUNTERED. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH THE FAR SIDE OF THE GULLY. THE ENGINE WAS EXAMINED BY RESPONDING FAA INSPECTORS. THE ENGINE WATER PUMP WAS FOUND TO HAVE A LOOSE FITTING IN THE TOP OF THE PUMP. THE VENT LINE AND FITTING COULD BE TURNED BY SINGLE FINGER PRESSURE. THE WORM DRIVE HOSE CLAMP ON THE VENT LINE EXHIBITED EVIDENCE OF CORROSION AND THE WATER PUMP SHOWED A TRAIL OF DIRT, DUST, AND RUST MIXED WITH ANTI-FREEZE FROM THE TOP OF THE PUMP IN THE AREA OF THE VENT LINE FITTING.
Probable cause
the inadequate maintenance on the engine's liquid cooling system fittings and lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA008
- Event ID
- 20001206X02468
- Case number
- LAX95LA008
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b1e00444950674b944d1046d0960f3676290e95059dc47cc0ef1cbedbfece289; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:34:49.746Z.