CHI93LA184 · Piper PA-23-160
Crystal Shamrock Piper PA-23-160 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 03Y · Hallock, MN to Grand Marais Cook County Airport (CKC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93LA184
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-23-160
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N3333P
- Operator
- Crystal Shamrock
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 03Y · Hallock, MNTo Grand Marais Cook County Airport (CKC), Grand Marais, MN
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THE LEFT ENGINE LOST POWER WHILE THE FLIGHT WAS CRUISING AT 7,000' MSL. HE SAID HE FEATHERED THE LEFT PROP, BUT CONTINUED TO LOSE ALTITUDE. HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE, AND MADE A FORCED LANDING INTO TREE TOPS. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE'S MAIN LANDING GEAR HAD KEPT 'SAGGING' THROUGHOUT THE FLIGHT, AND HE WAS REQUIRED TO PLACE THE MAIN GEAR SELECTOR IN THE 'UP' POSITION EVERY 3 TO 5 MINUTES. HE SAID THE GEAR PROBLEM WAS APPARENTLY CAUSED BY A SLOW LEAK IN THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM, AND THAT IT HAD BEEN SCHEDULED FOR REPAIR. HE WROTE IN HIS REPORT TO THE NTSB: 'IN RETROSPECT, I BELIEVE THIS SEEMINGLY MINOR PROBLEM MAY HAVE BEEN OF CRITICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN CAUSING THIS PROBLEM...I MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO RECOGNIZE THIS AS THE SOURCE OF DRAG...AND AVOID THE CRASH-LANDING.' AN EXAMINATION OF THE LEFT ENGINE AFTER THE ACCIDENT DISCLOSED WATER AND DEBRIS IN THE FUEL SYSTEM AND BLACKENED SPARK PLUGS.
Probable cause
the pilot's decision to continue flight with a known deficiency in the airplane's hydraulic system. Factors associated with the accident are the loss of power in the left engine due to fuel contamination, and a leak in the hydraulic system.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93LA184
- Event ID
- 20001211X12363
- Case number
- CHI93LA184
- 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: 745c77bf4415585d63cb9423b6c3fea615046f583157c9c53e520bbd81721f60; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:24:29.202Z.