FTW92LA220 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From an unrecorded airport to Robert S Kerr Airport (RKR)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA220
- 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-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N32677
- Operator
- Glenn, Troy · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Robert S Kerr Airport (RKR), Poteau, OK
- 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)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
- Lubricating system, oil pressure pump › Seized
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD LEVELED THE AIRPLANE OFF FOR CRUISE FLIGHT WHEN THE ENGINE'S RPM DROPPED TO APPROXIMATELY 1,500 AND THE OIL PRESSURE WENT TO '0 PSI.' A SHORT TIME LATER, THE ENGINE VIBRATED AND SEIZED. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO MANEUVER THE AIRPLANE DURING THE FORCED LANDING TO A NEARBY GRASS AIRSTRIP, BUT WAS UNABLE TO IDENTIFY IT DUE TO THE DARK NIGHT CONDITION. DURING THE DESCENT INTO WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS THE AIRSTRIP, THE AIRPLANE CONTACTED THE TOP OF A TREE. THE PILOT MAINTAINED CONTROL AND LANDED IN A BEAN FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE NOSE GEAR BECAME ENTANGLED IN THE HIGH VEGETATION AND COLLAPSED. THE AIRPLANE THEN NOSED OVER. ENGINE DISASSEMBLY REVEALED THAT THE OIL SUPPLY HAD BEEN INTERRUPTED BY THE FAILURE OF THE 78532 OIL PUMP DRIVEN IMPELLER. THIS LOSS OF LUBRICATION RESULTED IN THE ENGINE SUSTAINING SEVERE DAMAGE TO ITS ROTATING AND RECIPROCATING COMPONENTS. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE'S RECORDS INDICATED THAT THE MANUFACTURER'S SERVICE BULLETIN #456 HAD NOT BEEN COMPLIED WITH AS OUTLINED IN AD 81-18-04R2, PARAGRAPH C, WHICH REQUIRED THE REMOVAL OF THE 'SINTERED' IRON IMPELLER.
Probable cause
TOTAL LOSS OF POWER FROM A SEIZED OIL PUMP AND RESULTING OIL STARVATION TO THE ENGINE. FACTORS WERE THE NONCOMPLIANCE WITH AN ENGINE SERVICE BULLETIN AND THE DARK NIGHT CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA220
- Event ID
- 20001211X15695
- Case number
- FTW92LA220
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-09-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9a23276e70bd3a5506984030d3500cf40100ebc37ddf2510040e6b506a3df8cc; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:40:34.383Z.