SEA95LA028 · Piper PA-28-236
Piper PA-28-236 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Sheridan County Airport (SHR) to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA95LA028
- 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
- Visual 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
- N4300V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sheridan County Airport (SHR), Sheridan, WYTo Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), Broomfield, CO
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Ignition system, ignition coil › Shorted
- Terrain condition › None suitable
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING AT 11,500 FEET MSL, THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. BEING UNABLE TO REGAIN POWER, THE PILOT ELECTED TO ATTEMPTED A FORCED LANDING NEAR MEDICINE BOW, WYOMING. THE TOUCHDOWN WAS SUCCESSFUL, BUT THE NOSE GEAR AND RIGHT MAIN GEAR COLLAPSED DURING THE LANDING ROLL ON THE ROUGH/UNEVEN TERRAIN. LATER INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT BOTH MAGNETO COILS HAD SHORTED TO THE MAGNETO HOUSING. ONE COIL HAD BURNED THROUGH ITS INSULATION, AND THE OTHER SHOWED SIGNS OF ARCING THROUGH A NUMBER OF CRACKS IN ITS INSULATION.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE MAGNETO SYSTEM DUE TO SHORTING OF BOTH MAGNETO COILS TO THE MAGNETO HOUSING AND THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN TO MAKE A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA95LA028
- Event ID
- 20001206X02800
- Case number
- SEA95LA028
- 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: 07cc34dfd300d410d63c4a47b989fcf12ca461563cb783003f0cdefbdbba251e; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:24:21.958Z.