Shortly after an apparently normal take-off, engine power was lost and the pilot was committed to a landing straight ahead. Initial touchdown was in a flooded rice paddy, and the aircraft then struck a levy bank and ran through a fence, coming to rest inverted in an adjoining dry paddock. Investigation revealed that one cylinder head had become detached from the engine and had removed a section of the inlet manifold. The cylinder head had failed as a result of fatigue cracking which had commenced at the edge of an exhaust valve insert.
