LAX92LA002 · Cano AVID FLYER
Cano AVID FLYER · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 022 · Columbia, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA002
- 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
Cano AVID FLYER
- Aircraft type
- Cano 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
- N860CD
- Operator
- Derego, Charles A. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 022 · Columbia, CATo not recorded
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fuel system, line › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED IN HIS WRITTEN REPORT THAT HE REFUELED THE AIRCRAFT PRIOR TO DEPARTURE WITH ABOUT 19 GALLONS OF AVIATION FUEL. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, HE DEPARTED COLUMBIA AND CLIMBED TO ABOUT 10,000 FEET WHILE HE FLEW AROUND THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. AT ABOUT 1200 HOURS, HE TURNED AND HEADED BACK TO COLUMBIA. HE REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE BEGAN TO SURGE AND THE REAR CYLINDER EGT INDICATED A POTENTIAL FUEL STARVATION PROBLEM. THE ENGINE WAS NOT PRODUCING SUFFICIENT POWER TO MAINTAIN FLIGHT AND THE PILOT SET UP FOR A FORCED LANDING IN A MOUNTAIN MEADOW. HE STATED THAT THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO SURGE, EVEN AFTER THE THROTTLE WAS REDUCED TO IDLE, WHICH CAUSED THE AIRCRAFT TO OVER SHOOT HIS INTENDED LANDING SPOT. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH TREES AT THE FAR END OF THE MEADOW. THE PILOT SAID THE AIRCRAFT IS NOT EQUIPPED WITH AN ELECTRIC BOOST PUMP. HE SPECULATED THAT THE ENGINE POWER PROBLEM WAS DUE TO EITHER VAPOR LOCK OR A MALFUNCTION OF THE ENGINE DRIVEN PUMP.
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION DUE TO VAPOR LOCK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA002
- Event ID
- 20001212X18312
- Case number
- LAX92LA002
- 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: 9f15373994e59f8e7adc84ff258288e404510abd1a4b3a4d9b861593739cf739; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:38:33.483Z.