CHI92LA167 · Piper PA-34-200
Earle Aircraft Piper PA-34-200 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Dexter Municipal Airport (DXE) to 80J · Hastings, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA167
- 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-34-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N1050X
- Operator
- Earle Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dexter Municipal Airport (DXE), Dexter, MOTo 80J · Hastings, FL
- 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)
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Precautionary landing, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A DITCH DURING A FORCED LANDING. THE LANDING OCCURRED AFTER THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER IN THE RIGHT ENGINE, FOLLOWED BY A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER IN THE LEFT ENGINE. THE UNREGISTERED AIRPLANE WAS BEING OPERATED AS A FERRY FLIGHT. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE RIGHT ENGINE BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH ABOUT 15 MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT. ABOUT 15 MINUTES LATER THE LEFT ENGINE STOPPED. HE ATTEMPTED A RESTART AND WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL. HE REPORTED HE COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND SELECTED A ROAD FOR LANDING. WHEN HE OBSERVED VEHICLES ON THE ROAD HE SELECTED AND ULTIMATELY LANDED IN A WHEAT FIELD. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE DITCH DURING THE LANDING ROLL. AFTER ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE SHOWED A DEFECTIVE RIGHT MAGNETO ON THE RIGHT ENGINE. A DEFECTIVE DIAPHRAGM WAS DISCOVERED IN THE LEFT ENGINE THROTTLE BODY. A MAP REVIEW SHOWS THE PILOT OVERFLEW TWO SUITABLE AIRPORTS AFTER THE RIGHT ENGINE BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH.
Probable cause
AN IMPROPER DECISION DURING FLIGHT WHEN THE PILOT IN COMMAND OVERFLEW TWO SUITABLE LANDING AREAS AFTER A PARTIAL POWER LOSS IN ONE ENGINE. THE MECHANICAL DEFICIENCIES IN THE ENGINES WERE FACTORS IN THE ENGINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA167
- Event ID
- 20001211X14808
- Case number
- CHI92LA167
- 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: dccedc129b2041ef1d16bf6be3780e2bafdc4ea3b6906e1caa48aa81483402bb; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:04:53.075Z.