LAX91FA242 · Cessna C-A150L
Cessna C-A150L · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Redding Municipal Airport (RDD) to Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA242
- 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
- 1 · 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
Cessna C-A150L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna C-A150L
- 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
- N6019J
- Operator
- Michael J. Rust · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Redding Municipal Airport (RDD), Redding, CATo Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL), Red Bluff, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aerobatics, performed
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Low pass, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE MAKE A LOW PASS OVER HIS PRIVATELY OWNED AIRSTRIP BETWEEN 50 AND 100 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL (AGL). THEREAFTER, THE AIRPLANE PULLED UP, CLIMBED TO A MAXIMUM ALTITUDE OF 200 FEET AGL, & MADE A COMPLETE AILERON ROLL. THE WITNESS FURTHER REPORTED THAT AT THE COMPLETION OF THE ROLL THE AIRPLANE WAS FLYING SLOWLY. SUDDENLY, THE AIRPLANE ENTERED A RIGHT 60 TO 90 DEGREE BANK, AND THE AIRPLANE'S NOSE DROPPED. THE AIRPLANE RAPIDLY DESCENDED, & WHILE IN A RIGHT WING LOW AND NOSE LOW ATTITUDE IT COLLIDED INTO THE BACKYARD OF A RESIDENCE. THE PILOT HAD A HISTORY OF FLYING LOW OVER THE AIRSTRIP TO SAY HELLO TO THE RESIDENTS. ON PREVIOUS OCCASIONS THE PROFESSIONAL 21,300-HOUR PILOT, FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR, AND AIR TAXI OPERATOR, HAD PERFORMED LOW LEVEL AEROBATIC MANEUVERS DURING AIR SHOWS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INTENTIONAL LOW PASS DURING WHICH HE PERFORMED AN AEROBATIC MANEUVER WITH INADEQUATE AIRSPEED. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S LOW ALTITUDE AND THE TAILWIND CONDITION WHICH CREATED THE VISUAL PERCEPTION TO THE PILOT OF HAVING AN AIRSPEED HIGHER THAN THAT WHICH HE ACTUALLY HAD. ALSO, THE PILOT USED EXCEEDINGLY POOR JUDGMENT BY HIS PERFORMANCE OF THE AEROBATIC MANEUVER NEAR HOMES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA242
- Event ID
- 20001212X17283
- Case number
- LAX91FA242
- 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: 83d6ae88027aeef912091907ebd827b746b0c7666e4f21efff48f4a80d7eabc6; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:47:11.405Z.