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Lake Clark Air Piper PA-32-260 accident

14 Aug 1994 · Kenai, AK, United States

Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route

From Merrill Field (MRI) to PORT ALSWORTH, AK

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Event

NTSB case
ANC94FA106
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
3 · 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
Charter & commuter
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

Piper PA-32-260

Aircraft type
Piper PA-32
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
N4839S
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Merrill Field (MRI), MERRILL FIELD, AKTo PORT ALSWORTH, AK
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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
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
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

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
  • Engine assembly, crankcase › Fatigue
  • Engine compartment › Fire
  • Miscellaneous, bolt/nut/fastener/clamp/spring › Failure

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

NTSB narrative

THE AIRPLANE WAS ON A PART 135 ON-DEMAND AIR TAXI FLIGHT, WHEN PHYSICAL SEPARATION OF THE NO. 3 CYLINDER AND PISTON OCCURRED AND AN IN-FLIGHT FIRE ENSUED. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRPLANE CRASH LANDED ON TERRAIN NEAR THE SHORELINE OF A BODY OF WATER. ONE OF THE FOUR OCCUPANTS SURVIVED THE CRASH, BUT THE SURVIVING PASSENGER COULD NOT RECALL EVENTS THAT LED TO THE ACCIDENT. MAINTENANCE RECORDS INDICATED THAT THE #3 AND #4 CYLINDER ASSEMBLIES WERE INSTALLED ABOUT 220 FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THIS MAINTENANCE WAS PERFORMED WITHOUT REMOVING THE ENGINE FROM THE AIRPLANE. NO PROBLEM WITH THE AIRFRAME OR ENGINE WAS RECORDED SUBSEQUENT TO THE CYLINDER CHANGE. INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED FATIGUE CRACKS IN THE CASE UNDER THE NO. 3 CYLINDER. MAGNIFIED INSPECTION OF THE CASE REVEALED WEAR AND DEFORMATION DAMAGE, WHERE THE HOLDING FLANGE AND INNER SKIRT OF THE CYLINDER WOULD NORMALLY BE POSITIONED, WHICH WAS CONSISTENT WITH THE CYLINDER MOVING IN RELATION TO THE CASE. ALSO, MECHANICAL DAMAGE WAS EVIDENT ON THE THREADS OF THE STUDS AND BOTH THROUGH-BOLTS.

Probable cause

INADEQUATE ENGINE MAINTENANCE AND/OR INSPECTION, AND FATIGUE CRACKING OF THE ENGINE CASE, WHICH RESULTED IN EVENTUAL DAMAGE TO THE #3 CYLINDER STUDS/ENGINE THROUGH-BOLTS, SUBSEQUENT SEPARATION OF THE #3 CYLINDER AND PISTON, AND AN IN-FLIGHT FIRE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ANC94FA106
Event ID
20001206X01900
Case number
ANC94FA106
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
  • 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: 85981ea0eaea6faae3a501e367bddb1de79478d3366cf5b957a2417446abab36; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:47:43.911Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N4839S; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, HXXC.