CHI94LA062 · Piper PA-28-236
Piper PA-28-236 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) to C18 · Frankfort, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA062
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-236
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N8117Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harrisburg International Airport (MDT), Harrisburg, PATo C18 · Frankfort, IL
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Electrical system, alternator › Fractured
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE FLYING IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS THE AIRPLANE'S ELECTRICAL SYSTEM CEASED OPERATING. ESTIMATING ONE HOUR OF FUEL REMAINING, THE PILOT DESCENDED THROUGH THE CLOUDS IN SEARCH OF AN AIRPORT. ONCE BELOW THE CLOUDS, THE PILOT STATED, HE ENCOUNTERED RAPIDLY DECREASING VISIBILITY DUE TO SNOW AND DARKENING SKY. AFTER APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES OF FLYING, THE PILOT LANDED THE AIRPLANE IN A FARM FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE AIRPLANE'S LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR AND NOSE GEAR SEPARATED FROM THE AIRFRAME. AN ON-SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED A DISCONNECTED ALTERNATOR BELT. THE ALTERNATOR'S MOUNTING LUG HAD SEPARATED FROM THE UNIT ALLOWING THE ALTERNATOR TO MOVE AWAY FROM ITS ENGINE MOUNTING. THE TYPE OF FRACTURE COULD NOT BE DETERMINED DUE TO SURFACE POLISHING.
Probable cause
An electrical system failure due to a fractured alternator mounting lug. Factors related to the accident were the rough terrain, and decreasing visibility due to snow and darkness.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA062
- Event ID
- 20001206X00605
- Case number
- CHI94LA062
- 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: 51140a5fcd0237d04acc5447ba4bab9c84ef7179bbe9f612cc4a45aaeed04983; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:23:44.143Z.