FTW92LA210 · Piper PA-24-180
Piper PA-24-180 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From MO6 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA210
- 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-24-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N5981P
- Operator
- Hargus, Herbert H. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MO6To not recorded
- 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 · climb to 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
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT, WHO WAS ALSO THE MECHANIC, WAS PERFORMING AN IN FLIGHT RIGGING CHECK OF THE AIRPLANE. DURING CLIMB, A POP SOUND WAS HEARD AND PROPELLER THRUST WAS LOST. MOVEMENT OF THE PROPELLER CONTROL HAD NO EFFECT AND AN EMERGENCY DESCENT WAS INITIATED BY THE PILOT. A 35 TO 40 DEGREE NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE WAS REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN 85 KNOTS DURING THE FORCED LANDING TO A ROAD. THE ENGINE WAS NOT SECURED BY THE PILOT. A HARD LANDING OCCURRED AT AN ESTIMATED 1,800 FEET PER MINUTE DESCENT RATE, ACCORDING TO THE PILOT. THE PROPELLER SYSTEM WAS TORN DOWN AND TWO STAKING PINS WERE MISSING. THE GUIDE COLLAR, ROD, FORK, AND PISTON HAD ROTATED AROUND THE HUB. THE PROPELLER BLADES WERE DISCONNECTED FROM THE PITCH CHANGE MECHANISM. THE PROPELLER ASSEMBLY HAD BEEN OVERHAULED AND INSTALLED ON THE AIRCRAFT APPROXIMATELY 31.7 HOURS PRIOR TO THE FAILURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER FLARE. FACTORS WERE THE PROPELLER SYSTEM'S PITCH CHANGE MECHANISM DISCONNECTED DUE TO IMPROPER OVERHAUL AND FAILURE TO INSTALL THE STAKING PINS BY OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA210
- Event ID
- 20001211X15415
- Case number
- FTW92LA210
- 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: 58482606fadec15d07a4ea3459b5d2702e235671ba638feab82213c203398f65; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:45:19.875Z.