BFO92LA061 · Aerotek PITTS S-1S
Aerotek PITTS S-1S · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Princeton-Caldwell County Airport (2M0) to Hopkinsville, KY
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA061
- 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
Aerotek PITTS S-1S
- Aircraft type
- Aerotek PITTS S-1S
- 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
- N4MG
- Operator
- Meyer M. Gutman/J. Riedlbauer
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Princeton-Caldwell County Airport (2M0), Princeton, KYTo Hopkinsville, KY
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Guy wire
- 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
EN ROUTE FROM MOUNTAIN VIEW, MISSOURI, TO HOPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY, THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE OIL PRESSURE DROPPED FROM 78 PSI TO 70 PSI. A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING WAS MADE AND A VISUAL CHECK OF THE AIRPLANE WAS ACCOMPLISHED. THE OIL PRESSURE WAS STILL INDICATING A SAFE PRESSURE, SO THE PILOT CONTINUED THE FLIGHT TO HOPKINSVILLE. APPROXIMATELY 5 NAUTICAL MILES OUTSIDE OF HOPKINSVILLE, THE ENGINE'S OIL PRESSURE DROPPED TO ZERO AND THE ENGINE LOST PARTIAL POWER. THE PILOT WAS MAKING A FORCED LANDING ON A HIGHWAY WHEN THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A SINGLE GUY WIRE STRETCHED ACROSS THE HIGHWAY. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE GROUND, NOSED OVER AND SLID APPROXIMATELY 90 FEET BEFORE COMING TO REST UPRIGHT. AN ENGINE INSPECTION REVEALED AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF OIL IN THE EXHAUST STACK AND PORT OF THE NUMBER 4 CYLINDER. EXAMINATION OF THE NUMBER 4 CYLINDER REVEALED THE FOLLOWING: A BROKEN OIL RING, THE NUMBER 2 RING FROZEN IN THE GROOVE OF THE PISTON, AND ONE OF THE PISTON PLUGS WAS WORN WITH EXCESSIVE WEAR ON THE PISTON PLUG'S HOLE.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE NUMBER 2 OIL RING IN THE NUMBER 4 ENGINE CYLINDER RESULTING IN OIL LEAKAGE, LOSS OF OIL PRESSURE, AND ENGINE POWER LOSS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA061
- Event ID
- 20001211X14587
- Case number
- BFO92LA061
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-05-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fa4b703101c9f64bddf5adeab7a645d8d9dc83990dbbf1e9644d716fcf01db53; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:00:28.842Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the flight was "EN ROUTE FROM MOUNTAIN VIEW, MISSOURI, TO HOPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY" and that after a precautionary landing "THE PILOT CONTINUED THE FLIGHT TO HOPKINSVILLE"; the destination was not recorded.