BFO92LA036 · Christen Industries PITTS S2B
Christen Industries PITTS S2B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Donegal Springs Airpark (N71) to I77 · CINCINATI, OH
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA036
- 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
Christen Industries PITTS S2B
- Aircraft type
- Christen PITTS S2B
- 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
- N53385
- Operator
- Richard D Schauss · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Donegal Springs Airpark (N71), Maytown, PATo I77 · CINCINATI, OH
- 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
- Destroyed
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
WHILE EN ROUTE TO CINCINATI, OH, APPROX ONE HOUR AFTER TAKEOFF FROM MAYTOWN, PA, THE PLT AND PASSENGER OBSERVED OIL ON THE AIRPLANE'S WINDSCREEN. THE PLT STATED HE DECIDED TO MAKE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING, BUT AS SOON AS HE TURNED TOWARDS THE ALTERNATE AIRPORT, HE NOTICED AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF OIL FLOWING ACROSS THE AIRPLANE'S CLEAR FLOORBOARD. THE PLT SAID HE STARTED TO LOOK FOR SUITABLE TERRAIN TO MAKE A PRECAUTIONARY LDG, BUT THERE WAS NONE. AT THIS TIME, THE OIL PRESSURE GAUGE WAS READING ZERO. HE SAID HE PULLED THE POWER BACK TO AN IDLE SETTING, HOPING THAT IF HE NEEDED POWER LATER, THE ENGINE MIGHT STILL BE FUNCTIONAL. HE SAID HE FLEW THE AIRPLANE INTO A SMALL CLEARING IN THE WOODED TERRAIN. THE AIRPLANE HIT THE FIELD, TURNED 90 DEGREES IN DIRECTION, AND SLID ON THE RIGHT WING FOR 100 FEET, COMING TO REST APPROX 250 FT FROM A TREELINE. ON SCENE INVESTIGATIONS REVEALED THAT THE OIL BREATHER LINE HAD ACCUMULATED ICE NEAR THE END OF THE LINE AND WAS TOTALLY BLOCKED. THE OIL LEAK ORIGINATED FROM THE CRANKSHAFT OIL SEAL.
Probable cause
THE TOTAL BLOCKAGE OF THE OIL BREATHER LINE CAUSING EXCESSIVE PRESSURE IN THE ENGINE, RESULTING IN OIL LEAKAGE AND SUBSEQUENT ENGINE FAILURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA036
- Event ID
- 20001211X14240
- Case number
- BFO92LA036
- 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: da78496eeafe092ccebc1cdcce2b81b003996c87170654154626823454cf0686; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:19:56.793Z.