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LAX87DVA06 · North American F-86F

25 Apr 1987 · Shafter, CA, United States

North American F-86F · Accident: loss of engine power on approach

From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Shafter Airport - Minter Field (MIT)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX87DVA06
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

North American F-86F

Aircraft type
North American F-86
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
N86Z
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Shafter Airport - Minter Field (MIT), Shafter, 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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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 engine power
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 › Emergency procedure, not performed
  • Turbine assembly › Failure, total

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

FOLLOWING AN AIRSHOW, THE PILOT TRANSMITTED WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH TO THE RUNWAY, THAT THE ENGINE HAD SEIZED. THE AIRCRAFT WAS LANDED WITH THE LANDING GEAR RETRACTED. DURING THE FLARE THE AIRCRAFT BECAME UNCONTROLLABLE, BOUNCED SEVERAL TIMES ON THE RUNWAY, AND BURST INTO FLAMES. POST CRASH INVESTIGATION CONFIRMED THAT THE ENGINE WAS NOT ROTATING (OR WINDMILLING) AND THAT THE EMERGENCY HYDRAULIC SYSTEM WAS NOT BEING USED. FURTHERMORE, THE EJECTION SEAT WAS DISABLED AND THE PILOT WAS NOT WEARING A PARACHUTE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX87DVA06
Event ID
20001213X30697
Case number
LAX87DVA06
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: d79d729a5cd6f70d19405ff58500efed14396d317b5f460d0c27234f0ea68958; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:09:44.017Z.