Posted on: Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Faulty oil gasket caused 2000 Hilo plane crash

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that a faulty oil gasket caused a fire aboard a Big Island Air plane on Aug. 25, 2000, which caused the pilot to ditch in Hilo Bay, resulting in one death.

A passenger, Laveta Rose Reynolds, 61, of Collinsville, Okla., died when she was unable to get out of the plane as it sank. The pilot and seven other passengers got out with minor injuries. Reynolds' husband, James, 64, was among the survivors.

Reynolds, described by her husband as a nonswimmer, was last seen sitting in her seat with her seat belt fastened and her life vest inflated. The Coast Guard used sonar to find the plane the next day in 80 feet of water. Reynolds' body was still inside.

Officials of Big Island Air did not respond yesterday to requests for comments.

The National Transportation Safety Board final report on the crash generally confirms the findings of a preliminary report the month after the incident. It concluded that the engine fire in the Piper Chieftain was caused when a gasket on the oil filter converter plate bulged out of place, allowing engine oil to leak. The leak caused a loss of lubricating oil for the engine, and a fire as the oil hit the engine's hot surfaces.

An identical problem caused an engine fire three months earlier in an Alaska Piper aircraft with identical Textron Lycoming TIO-540-J2BD engines. Lycoming's service records showed that the Big Island Air plane's engines had been serviced and inspected just four days before the crash.