CHI92DCD08 · John Schackel Q2
John Schackel Q2 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From DOD · Fort Dodge, IA to Estherville Municipal Airport (EST)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92DCD08
- 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
John Schackel Q2
- Aircraft type
- John Schackel Q2
- 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
- N84JS
- Operator
- Schackel, John A · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DOD · Fort Dodge, IATo Estherville Municipal Airport (EST), Estherville, IA
- 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
- Airframe, component or system 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
- Engine assembly, crankshaft › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE WAS IN CRUISE FLIGHT WHEN THE PILOT NOTED AN ENGINE VIBRATION FOLLOWED BY AN INFLIGHT SEPARATION OF THE PROPELLER AND SPINNER. THE PILOT DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AND LANDED IN A SOYBEAN FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER IN SOFT TERRAIN. THE PROPELLER AND SPINNER WERE RECOVERED STILL ATTACHED TO THE FRONT PORTION OF THE ENGINE CRANKSHAFT. EXAMINATION OF THE CRANKSHAFT SHOWED AN AREA OF WEAR AT THE KEYSLOT WHERE THE PROPELLER FLANGE IS FITTED OVER THE SHAFT. EXAMINATION OF THE INSIDE WALLS OF THE PROPELLER FLANGE SHOWED AN 'AREA OF CONCENTRATED FRETTING WHICH LEFT A DISTINCT WEAR MARK THAT MATCHES THE FRACTURE SURFACE OF THE FAILED CRANKSHAFT.' ACCORDING TO MAINTENANCE RECORDS THE CONVERTED AUTOMOTIVE ENGINE HAD BEEN IN SERVICE SINCE MAY 23, 1987 AND HAD ACCUMULATED APPROXIMATELY 387 HOURS IN SERVICE. THE LAST ANNUAL INSPECTION ON THE AIRPLANE WAS ACCOMPLISHED ON MAY 21, 1992, APPROXIMATELY 3 FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
A FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE ENGINE CRANKSHAFT DURING CRUISE FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92DCD08
- Event ID
- 20001211X15089
- Case number
- CHI92DCD08
- 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: aaa52798032f0f90e0eb76b62c16c3ccf552347371874f2650f36c2673ab0940; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:13:25.013Z.