CHI95LA284 · VAN Zwoll VIKING
VAN Zwoll VIKING · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Evansville Regional Airport (EVV) to Mount Carmel Municipal Airport (AJG)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA284
- 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
VAN Zwoll VIKING
- Aircraft type
- Van Zwoll VIKING
- 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
- N69VZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Evansville Regional Airport (EVV), Evansville, INTo Mount Carmel Municipal Airport (AJG), Mount Carmel, 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
- 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
- Cooling system › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS CRUISING AT 2,000 FEET MEAN SEA LEVEL AND NOTED THE WATER PRESSURE GAGE WAS PEGGED AT THE MAXIMUM INDICATION. HE IMMEDIATELY REDUCED POWER AND BEGAN SEARCHING FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING SITE. HE HEARD A 'LOUD POP' AND OBSERVED COOLANT ON THE WINDSCREEN. THE OIL TEMPERATURE INDICATION BEGAN TO INCREASE. HE TRIMMED FOR BEST GLIDE AND SHUT THE ENGINE DOWN WHEN THE OIL TEMPERATURE REACHED 285 DEGREES. DURING THE FORCED LANDING IN A CORN FIELD, ONE OF THE LIFT STRUTS SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT ONE OF THE HEAD GASKETS WAS LEAKING AND COOLANT WAS ESCAPING FROM A LEAKING FREEZE PLUG. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE MANUFACTURER'S TORQUE PROCEDURE WAS FOLLOWED WHEN HE INSTALLED THE HEAD.
Probable cause
the failure of the head gasket resulting in a coolant leak and subsequent engine overtemperature. A factor was the unsuitable terrain encountered in the cornfield.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA284
- Event ID
- 20001207X04209
- Case number
- CHI95LA284
- 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: 6f4350b5e87c431d8fd7c0a7256f99ac0ec2700ad5dbac219bdf9e77fdf349bf; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:28:11.729Z.