FTW98LA350 · Piper PA-31-350
Air Bridge Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC) to San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman Field (ALS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA350
- 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-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N27196
- Operator
- Air Bridge
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), Kansas City, MOTo San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman Field (ALS), 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
- Approach
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was being ferried to its home base after both engine had received major overhauls. As the airplane approached Alamosa, the left engine lost power. Unable to restart the engine, the pilot feathered the propeller. The landing gear would only extend partially. The airplane would not maintain flying speed nor altitude and the pilot elected to make a forced landing in a cow pasture. Examination of the engine disclosed a broken coupling bolt on the right side of the turbocharger, preventing the V-band clamp from completely securing the exhaust pipe to the turbocharger, permitting hot exhaust gases to escape into the engine compartment. The turbocharger transition baffle was found partially melted and the manifold pressure line was burnt through and separated, allowing the mixture to enrichen and flood the engine. Textron Lycoming Service Bulletin 240P requires all V-band couplings and gaskets to be replaced when an engine is overhauled. The failed V-band coupling was found to be rusted and discolored, suggesting it had not been replaced. Additionally, the failed manifold pressure line used was made of rubber instead of flex stainless steel line.
Probable cause
Improper major overhaul of the engine by the overhaul facility. Factors were failure of the V-band clamp, the melting of the baffle and manifold clamp, and the pilot not being able to extend the landing gear.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA350
- Event ID
- 20001211X10846
- Case number
- FTW98LA350
- 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: eb4f30a3ee8efbdd50162f928abe91d2d80f7b6212b637dce61d8c1dfc6dc622; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:12:28.897Z.