BFO93FA063 · Piper PA-28-140
International Aviation Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK) to N80 · Ocean City, MD
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93FA063
- 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
- 1 · 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-28-140
- 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
- N56430
- Operator
- International Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK), Frederick, MDTo N80 · Ocean City, MD
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported to air traffic control that he had only 'partial power'. He received vectors to the closest airport. One witness, a certified flight instructor, saw the airplane and heard the pilot transmit that he would be making a 'partial power landing downwind on runway 12.' The witness reported that the winds were 'stiff' and favoring the opposite runway. The airplane made an approach over runway 12, and then the pilot announced that he was 'going around.' The airplane was then observed to climb, banked steeply to the left, turned back towards the airport, descended, and impacted power lines and a corn field. An examination of the engine revealed that the No. 4 exhaust valve had fractured as a result of fatigue cracking. Service Bulletins recommending the inspection and replacement of the valve were not complied with.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper in-flight planning/decision after selecting the wrong runway for a precautionary landing , which resulted in an inadvertent descent into transmission lines, while attempting to maneuver back to the runway. Factors related to the accident were fatigue failure of the number 4 exhaust valve, and failure of maintenance personnel to comply with service bulletins regarding the inspection and replacement of the valve.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93FA063
- Event ID
- 20001211X12078
- Case number
- BFO93FA063
- 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: 4760511ca096c257e267a23b3437d46d5ca92604db749a9d0be2ce27bfd814b8; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:37:19.564Z.