LAX87LA235 · Cessna 152
Ray-Jean Bull Aviation Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Long Beach International Airport (LGB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA235
- 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
Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N115RJ
- Operator
- Ray-Jean Bull Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Beach International Airport (LGB)To 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
- 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
- Total 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
- Engine assembly › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Long Beach, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT DITCHED IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN WHILE ON A VFR INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT. BOTH PILOTS INDICATED THAT THE ENGINE STOPPED ABRUPTLY AND THEY WERE UNABLE TO RESTART IT. THE PROPELLER WOULD NOT TURN WHEN THE STARTER WAS ENGAGED, NOR WOULD IT WINDMILL. THE CFI DITCHED THE AIRPLANE AND THEN ASSISTED THE STUDENT PILOT OUT OF THE AIRCRAFT THROUGH HIS EXIT. THE STUDENT PILOT HAD INDICATED THAT SHE WAS UNABLE TO OPEN HER DOOR OR UNFASTEN HER SEAT BELT ALTHOUGH SHE SUSTAINED NO INJURY. THE CFI AND THE STUDENT PILOT THEN TREADED WATER FOR APPROXIMATELY 15 MINUTES BEFORE THEY WERE RESCUED BY A BOAT. BOTH PILOTS REPORTED THAT THERE WAS NO FLOATATION DEVICES ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS UNABLE TO BE LOCATED AFTER IT SANK AND THEREFORE WAS NOT RECOVERED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA235
- Event ID
- 20001213X31230
- Case number
- LAX87LA235
- 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: 694a10f0358c696cd34b063d5289ffb020583eb2a65712edd827797995ba923f; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:00:09.750Z.