40 Mile Air Piper PA-18 accident
Piper PA-18 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Tok Junction Airport (TKJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC94LA129
- 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
- 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-18
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N8597D
- Operator
- 40 Mile Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Tok Junction Airport (TKJ), 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, camshaft › Worn
- Engine assembly, valve lifter › Worn
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS THE AIRPLANE REACHED THE END OF THE 600-FT STRIP, THE PILOT APPLIED THE SECOND NOTCH OF FLAPS. THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE FOR ABOUT 20 FT, AND THEN SETTLED INTO BRUSH. THE PASSENGER REPORTED THAT 'MY IMPRESSION IS THAT WE LACKED OR LOST ADEQUATE POWER TO MAINTAIN FLIGHT...' ANOTHER COMPANY PA-18 AT SITE HAD NO DIFFICULTY IN FERRYING EVERYONE FROM THE SITE. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE SHOWED THAT AN EXHAUST CAM LOBE WAS 30-40% WORN, AND THE ASSOCIATED CAM FOLLOWER WAS WORN AND DISH SHAPED. THE DEPTH OF THE WORN AREAS EXCEEDED THE DEPTH OF THE NITRATED SURFACE. ACCORDING TO THE DIR OF MAINT, A 50-HR INSPECTION WAS PERFORMED PREVIOUS TO THIS FLIGHT AND METAL PARTICLES WERE FOUND IN THE OIL SCREEN.
Probable cause
THE WORN CAM SHAFT LOBE AND WORN VALVE LIFTER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC94LA129
- Event ID
- 20001206X02160
- Case number
- ANC94LA129
- 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: 71c322fab2a806af348a12427fc1cd961a70dfb9278bd98a0b8354da338b948c; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:08:44.223Z.